The Island
by ktrhyne
Summary: This is a sequel to the story "Sensory Projections." Logan and Lorelei have left Xavier's, but the place they end up is shrouded in secrets. Logan/OC Pairing. Rated M for language, violence, adult/sexual content, and non-graphic reference to rape. Mature readers only. **Sequel to this story is posted, entitled "Home in the Woods."
1. Prologue

**AN: I do not own Marvel's X-men, its comics or characters, or films based on them, and I do not make any profit off of this story or its content and characters.**

**This story is part of a series I have written, and I hope you enjoy my work. The series stories, in order, are: Sensory Projections, The Island, and Home in the Woods. Happy reading!**

Prologue

"The courthouse? Why?"

"I made an appointment with a Justice who performs civil ceremonies." Logan jammed his hand into his jeans pocket and fished out a plain gold ring. "I love you. I want our child to have my name. But I want you to have it, first."

Lorelei smiled, a few tears spilling down her cheeks. "You know, I don't even know if Logan is your first name or your last name."

"Well," he grinned, "why don't you come to the courthouse with me and find out?"

Leaning over to kiss him carefully as he drove, she asked, "When did you do this? Get a ring?"

"Yesterday, when I went to buy the car. I want us to be official. I'm sorry_ - _I probably should have asked you first," he said with some hesitation.

"Are you kidding me?" she negated. "This is romantic. It's the perfect way to start this drive, I mean, this move, er . . . ."

"Our life," he suggested, picking up her left hand to kiss the back of it, and then her ring finger. "And it's James." Recognition blossomed across her face.

"My first name is James. The Professor hasn't been able to help me recover all my memories, but that much was still retrievable from all the crap we found at Alkali Lake. James Logan." He sounded slightly self-conscious, not being used to speaking his full name aloud.

She ran the tips of her fingers lightly over the back of his hand that still clasped hers, where his sharp claws lay within. His hand was hairy and solid and warm, and beneath the surface of his skin he was tightly coiled with energy, power, and passion. "I love you, James Logan."


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Logan stepped into the front door of the busy diner at the truck stop, scanning the packed vinyl booths around him for a certain head of chestnut hair. He knew she was nervous about going in without him, since people's reactions to her mutation were so unpredictable.

"You lookin' for your wife?" A harried-looking waitress with a tray of dirty dishes in her hands paused on her way into the kitchen. "Brown hair? She's in the bathroom, but I'll seat you two in just a minute."

"Sure," said Logan, responding automatically while inside he swelled with pride at hearing her referred to as his wife, which she was, as of 9:32a.m.

"Hey, you." Lorelei came up behind him. "You filled up the tank?"

Logan turned and wrapped both arms tight around her waist, capturing her mouth with his and giving her a long kiss, eliciting hoots from two grinning old truckers seated at the counter.

"Mmm," said Lorelei, when they came up for air. "What was that for?"

"Do I need a reason to kiss my _wife_?"

She blushed under the beaming look of admiration he was giving her, and gently tweaked his stomach. "Nope: anytime you want."

The waitress seated them at a booth, Logan sliding in on the bench next to Lorelei to put his right arm across the back of her shoulders, and they studied the cracked plastic menus. Lorelei's gaze kept straying to the shiny gold of her new wedding band, and she turned it around and around her finger, feeling ridiculously pleased.

"It fits so well," she commented.

"I wish I could take credit for that, but it's just luck," said Logan. "Told the guy about you, and he helped me guess."

"It's perfect." She kissed his cheek. "You know . . . I was really surprised that you planned this. So happy," she kissed him again, "but I just was not expecting it. I hope that's okay for me to say."

He chuckled. "It's okay_ - _I think anyone who's ever met me would say the same thing. Nothing about me is really the marrying type." He shrugged. "But this feels right: you're mine, and now everyone can see it." His voice contained a trace of humor, but she could tell he was serious, as well.

"Yes," she said, "and you're mine, too." She reached out and picked up his left hand, squeezing and then kissing it. "Are you going to wear one? A ring, I mean."

"I can't, Baby," he said regretfully. He tapped the spaces between his knuckles with his index finger, indicating where his adamantium claws would extend out between the metacarpal bones.

"Oh, of course." She'd forgotten_ - _he so rarely unsheathed his claws in front of her.

"But," he amended. "I did initial this one." He slipped the ring off her finger and tilted it, close to their faces. Inside the band, on the soft surface of the metal, were four razor-thin, shallow cuts, connecting to form the shape of the letter W.

"Wolverine," she supplied, putting it back on her finger. "That must have been careful work to do." She rubbed the back of his hand, caressing the skin over his deadly blades, then made a fist with her be-ringed left hand. "I'll always have you with me."

He nodded. "You always will." He kissed the tips of two fingers and placed them low on her belly, where their child was growing within.

"You lovebirds ready to order?" The waitress was back, her gravelly smoker's voice amused by their cuddling.

"Yes," came Lorelei's musical tones. "Two Blue Plates, for me and my _husband_."

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Lorelei unlocked the door of the motel room and turned on the light** _- _**tried to, but the first lamp she reached had a burned-out bulb_ - _while Logan brought their duffel bags in from the car. She took in the threadbare carpet and worn bedspread, and carefully hung her sweatshirt on the back of a wooden chair to keep it off of either surface.

Logan walked in, his big frame filling the doorway, and scowled at the interior of the room. "Shit. This place is a hole." He tossed their duffels on the rickety table, which held an ancient-looking television.

"It's only for one night, Babe," Lorelei consoled, as Logan also discovered the nonworking lamp.

"It was the only place in the last twenty miles with a vacancy. Dammit," he cursed. "This is our wedding night. I was planning on taking you to bed and making you scream, not getting you treated for hepatitis." The long day on the road had taken its toll, and he kicked the end of the bed in irritation.

Knowing better than to try to reason with a pissed-off Wolverine, Lorelei went over to the bed and dragged off the ugly comforter. The sheets beneath were bleached bright white and looked clean. She slipped off her shoes, trying not to cringe at the idea of what might have touched the carpet before her, and she stood next to the lamp.

"If this place is so awful," she said, "how about we just not look at it any more?" She flipped off the light, plunging the room into darkness.

Everything was pitch black for a second, but Logan's heightened senses made it pretty easy for him to make out what was happening. His ears detected the faint metallic whiz of the zipper on her jeans coming down. His eyes traced a flash of movement_ - _her arms as she crossed them in front of her and pulled her shirt up and off over her head. And as her heavy curtain of hair cascaded down her bare back, he caught that whiff of fir trees that he loved, which always clung to her strands for him.

The air in front of him was disturbed as she came forward, stopping just short of where he stood near the bed.

"What was that you said about making me scream?" she asked in a low voice, sounding like the Siren she was.

He took a breath, his nose now filled with the sweet scent of her naked body before him. "You still love me, even when I'm being an asshole?"

In response, she reached out into the dark and picked up his two big hands, placing them on her breasts. He curved his fingers around them reflexively, noting with pleasure that they had become slightly fuller and heavier now that she was pregnant.

He felt fingertips that dragged lightly over his lips, then trailed straight down his chest to settle at the button of his jeans. The hand gave a little tug on the denim, then surprised him by reaching down to cup his now-hard cock through the fabric. He made an appreciative, low sound, and leaned forward through the blackness to kiss her.

She could feel this, and darted her head to one side, stifling a giggle as she evaded him. Her hands came back up to his waistband to unfasten his belt and jeans, then slide them slowly off the skin of his hips, since he never wore underwear. He kicked them off of his ankles, and started to run his palms from her breasts down her side and around to grip her ass, but she grabbed his wrists so suddenly that he let go of her.

She clamped her fingers on him tightly and brought both of his hands in front of him, between their two bodies. Pushing against him, he understood what she wanted and backed up until his calves hit the edge of the bed_ - _there was no way that she could actually shove his adamantium skeleton anywhere she wanted it to go. She now put both of her palms on his chest and pressed again, indicating that he should sit_ - _no, lay_ - _down on the bed in the dark.

He felt the mattress depress on either side of his legs as she straddled him, daintily grasping the hem of his t-shirt and pushing it up just a little, making way for her tongue to flick over his ribcage and across his abdomen, her exhalations creating goosebumps on his skin in the obscurity of the room.

Adjusting her position over him a little more, her lips disappeared abruptly from his stomach. He blinked his eyes in the gloom, not daring to hope, but then he felt her wrap her mouth around his erect member, sliding over him all warm and wet. _Damn_, he thought. _Points to her for knowing how to turn around a bad mood._

She made a quiet little humming sound and he sucked his breath in, blinking his eyes toward the ceiling that was consumed by the night. He exhaled with pleasure, reveling in this out-of-character moment for his wife. Typically she was demure, sometimes even bashful, in bed, but the lights out seemed to give her the confidence to take charge of their lovemaking. Her bossiness was kind of cute, and turning him on. Really turning him on . . . and he knew he had to be inside her before he came.

Shifting his body so that she pulled her head up, he launched himself at her and threw his arms around her. Lorelei was so shocked that she shrieked, but he tucked her head underneath his chin and whispered _Shhh_ into her hair, reassuring her jumpy tendencies that she had nothing to fear. Moving quickly again, he flipped her onto her back and ripped off his own shirt, then held both of her slender wrists above her head with one hand, finally claiming her mouth with his, the way he'd wanted to.

He entangled his tongue with hers, making sure that she was thoroughly distracted before he slid two fingers inside her, between her legs. They both gasped away from their kiss: she was startled by the sensation, and he was elated by how slippery she felt. He withdrew his fingers with a low groan.

Logan sheathed himself inside her with one thrust, the little half-whine, half-moan noise she made pleasing his inner animal very much. He used his knees to nudge her legs farther apart, releasing her wrists to plant one arm on the bed for support, the other hand firmly gripping at the junction of her hip and ass to bring her up toward him with every stroke.

She clenched him with her thighs, trying to roll them over and get on top, but he refused to move, and chuckled at the tiny frustrated sound she made. She couldn't pretend to stay upset for long, however_ - _the wonderful friction that his big, warm, active body was creating on top of hers started eliciting breathless little cries that let him know she was close to orgasm. He drove into her even deeper, putting his mouth right next to her ear in the darkness and murmuring, "That's right, Baby."

Lorelei dissolved, her whole body shuddering as she hit that highest point of pleasure. He listened to her come undone in the dark, feeling wild with desire, and continued his steady rhythm, his cock rubbing relentlessly on her hypersensitive flesh. She squirmed at this, which actually felt incredible as she writhed beneath him.

"James."

She said his name so quietly he almost missed it, but his feral hearing was sharp, and attuned to her especially. He slowed down, then, aware of his weight on top of her, pinning her to the bed with his member, her body soft and sweet and ready for him. He slipped both hands beneath her shoulders on the bed as he pressed his forehead to hers, kissed her, and thrust home to completion inside her.

He stilled, and gathered her body close to his, rolling them over as one, so that she lay on top of him, utterly spent. "Mmm," she voiced her approval, planting several little kisses on his chest. "Best wedding night ever."


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Logan swallowed the last bite of the granola bar he'd unwrapped before breakfast and grabbed his boots, sitting down on the edge of the bed to put them on.

"Two minutes!" insisted Lorelei, as she scurried out of the bathroom past him to where her duffel bag lay open on the table. She clutched a white towel around her body with one hand, dark hair dripping wet down her back while her other hand pawed through her clothes in search of a clean pair of panties. Snapping them up, she turned to head back into the bathroom, but as she passed him Logan lunged forward and grabbed her, flinging them backward onto the bed together. "Gotcha!" he gloated.

He hugged her, warm and moist through the towel, and rolled her onto her back, hitching his body up above her and locating the end of her towel to unwrap it from where she'd held it to her front. Her normally white skin was still slightly pink from the hot shower, and he bent his head to kiss her left hip, over a tiny shooting star tattoo.

Lorelei felt a droplet of water slithering its way across her neck, tickling across her skin before it ran down to fall on the sheets below her. She watched his eyes as they roved over her naked body, his fingers also delicately skimming all around her, leaving a trail of heat in their wake. He always loved to look at her like this_ - _lying down, him above her_ - _and more often than not it would lead to sex, his big body carefully engulfing her, pleasing her, serving her, as if she were something he must worship.

She knew, too, that it was part of the instinct of his feral nature that drove him to mount her, ensuring that her body was willingly submissive underneath his, allowing him to permeate every part of her with his scent to satisfy the animal within her Wolverine. It was a small concession she made in the bedroom to assume this role of frailty, since he fulfilled his duty in their relationship elsewhere with respect, love, tenderness, and kindness. And he was never crude or rough with her, mindful of the violence in her past: several years ago, she'd been assaulted and raped by a stranger.

She'd asked him about his habit once when they were cuddling post-coital, the inclination to get her onto her back with his arms around her. He'd looked a little surprised, as though he hadn't realized that he was doing it, and shrugged.

"I'm your man; it's what I do," he said simply, leaning down to kiss and then lightly bite her neck over her carotid artery, which she knew was a playful reference to the way male animals used their teeth to dominate the females before intercourse. Although, she noticed that after she asked him that, he let her wriggle her way on top of him into a reverse cowgirl position the next time they had sex. (_Mmm, and that was nice, _she remembered._ Must do that again sometime_.)

Returning her focus to her fully-dressed husband, who was still keeping her captive and naked while her wet hair soaked into the sheets below her, she noticed that his expression had changed. Rather than looking teasing, he was now scrutinizing her, staring at the skin just below her navel, rubbing her belly softly with his thumb.

"I still can't believe it sometimes," he admitted. "Our baby in there."

She felt a thrill of nervous excitement, which always ran through her when she thought about their little one. "It's pretty amazing," she spoke up. "And a little . . . scary."

Logan nodded in agreement. "Yeah, but we've got lots of time before he's- before the baby's here." He laid his palm flat on her stomach. "You aren't even showing yet. When does that start?" he wondered.

Lorelei bit her lip. "I have no idea. I don't actually know anything about babies; I've never been around them before. I don't have the first clue how to take care of one," she said quietly, a note of insecurity in her voice.

Logan felt a twinge of guilt for stirring up her apprehension, and he tried to sound confident as he responded, "Lots of time, remember? We'll learn all the stuff we need to know."

She relaxed at his bravado. "I was thinking maybe I could look for a book? When I'm doing something new, I usually go into read-and-research mode," she smiled.

He smiled back. "Good idea." Pulling her to her feet and steering her toward the bathroom, he said, "I promise not to hold you up any more_ - _get dressed. We can grab some real food and hit the road." He gave her bottom a little swat to punctuate this, then scooped up her panties and tossed them in after her. "Don't forget these!"

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Lorelei rolled down her window, letting the warm, humid air of the Great Lakes Region waft over her face as she scanned the new book that she had propped up on the dashboard. "Huh," she read, "right now the baby is only this big." She held her thumb and forefinger a few centimeters apart, her hand bobbing with the motion of the car.

She closed the book, rubbing between her eyebrows. "Whew, I think that's enough reading for now. I don't want to get carsick."

Logan started. "Are you going to puke? Should we have waited longer before getting back in the car after lunch?"

"No," she said, sipping from her water bottle. She laid her hand on his thigh to reassure him. "I actually have been feeling fine; I'm glad of that. Just going to the bathroom a lot more lately, which Hank told me was normal."

"Good," he affirmed. "I was thinking: it's so warm here, we could probably sleep out under the stars tonight." They'd packed a little tent in the car, assuming that they'd be camping at least some of the time as they spent several days driving west to Alberta, but the mild temperature made sleeping rough sound very appealing. "We'll probably still need to find an exit with a sign for a campground, because I don't want to just leave the car parked somewhere by itself for the night."

"I like that idea," she said, squeezing his leg a little. "Can you show me how to turn on that little stove, too? I don't want to be stuck without a way to make coffee in the morning." Her eyes twinkled. They were both coffee addicts, but Logan more so than she: until he had a big black cup in the morning, he could barely grunt out three words.

"Oh, I can do it for you, Babe, don't worry," he insisted. "When we stop again for gas in a little while, let's get out the map and see if we can spot something ahead of us, so we can get settled in before it gets dark."

Once they had filled the gas tank (and Lorelei made another trip to the restroom), they appraised the route they were taking, and scoped out a campground a few dozen miles away. Pulling in to its driveway less than an hour later, Logan checked them in, identifying the spot on the gravel where they could leave their car, adjacent to a grassy sprawl that was the assigned area for overnight campers. A couple of tents were scattered around, with people already preparing food on what was clearly a communal campfire.

Logan grabbed their sleeping bags and a tarp, the latter of which he tacked down well to the ground ("So that our sleeping bags don't get wet with overnight dew from the grass," he told Lorelei) before flinging open the fluffy bags on its surface. "Cozy," Lorelei pronounced it, rising up on her tiptoes to kiss him.

"Yep, that was us in our younger days, too." A cheerful voice came from behind them, and they turned around to see a white-whiskered man wearing a baseball cap and a broad grin. A woman with a long gray braid walked up to join him, holding a brown paper package in one hand, and two long metal barbecue skewers in the other. _Oh, good, _thought Logan. _Chatty neighbors._

The man continued, "We went camping for our honeymoon, and never stopped-we celebrated 35 years of marriage last April. We started out just sleeping under the sky, like you, although nowadays we go luxury-style in the RV for the comfort of our old bones." He waved his hand toward a little truck-and-trailer combo parked nearby. "You two newlyweds?"

Lorelei nodded shyly. Since her mutation caused her body to emit sensory projections, affecting all five senses of those around her (though Logan was the only one whose sense of taste she engaged), she was always a little hesitant around new people, unsure of how they might react once they drew close to her. For most of her life, her looks, voice, scent, and touch had been merely pleasurable, giving the receivers of her projections a sensation of bliss.

With the hormone shifts of her pregnancy, however, Logan had perceived some variations in her pheromone release, which they were concerned would cause more humans to become enthralled by her presence, escalating their ecstatic feelings to ones of crazed lust. It was one such reaction that had inspired them embark on this trip, in favor of someplace more remote.

Logan kept her halfway behind him as the man and woman walked nonchalantly closer to them, then eased his protective stance when he assessed them and saw simply normal contentedness in their faces.

"I'm Bill, and this is my wife Linda," the man introduced himself. Logan wrestled for a moment between his hatred of small talk and his immense pride in his beautiful bride. "James. My wife Lorelei."

"Did you eat already?" Linda piped up. "We stopped in at a little roadside stand up the highway and bought way too many cherries, they are just delicious. And we have a bunch of bratwurst we were about to roast over the fire," she indicated the package and skewers in her hands. "You have to help us eat it all."

"Oh, we couldn't impose," said Lorelei.

"Of course you can," insisted Bill. "We have plenty, and it's just simple fare, after all. C'mon sit down, and tell us about yourselves."

It was on the tip of Logan's tongue to refuse this chummy suggestion, but the gurgling from his empty stomach won out_ - _they had cold deli sandwiches waiting in the car for their dinner, the soggy white bread completely unappealing. "Okay, thanks."

Dragging folding chairs over to a little card table on the grass that had plates and paper towels on top of it already, Linda indicated for Lorelei to sit down, and then efficiently proceeded to unwrap and skewer the sausages and hand them to Bill on his way to the campfire. Lorelei sat with a bowl of dark, sweet cherries in her lap, biting down on the juicy fruit and spitting out the pits into a paper towel.

With the skins on the bratwurst splitting open with readiness, Bill shucked them onto a plate, allowing Logan and Lorelei to serve themselves, then popped the tops off of two cold beers, offering them to his guests. Logan accepted, but Lorelei shook her head. "We're expecting," she revealed, her cheeks turning pink as she spoke.

Bill's eyes went wide, but he brought the bottle to his own lips instead. "Congratulations! More for me, then."

Dropping a bag of bread rolls onto her husband's lap and indicating for him to pass them around, Linda chimed in. "Your car looks like it's packed up pretty full, are you moving somewhere? Not just a camping trip?"

Logan was taken aback by her intrusiveness, and kept his response as short as was polite. "Going to settle in Alberta."

Bill nodded. "Oh, okay. Yep, we're both Canadian-born. Alberta's gorgeous." He took a pull from his beer. "If you're heading west, though, have you ever thought about the coast of British Columbia? There's a great place for mutants."


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Lorelei froze, a mouthful of bread in her mouth, as her blood ran icy in her veins. She shifted her gaze to Logan, who was deadly still, narrowing his eyes at the older man. "What?" he asked in a dangerous voice, the word more of a challenge than a question.

Linda looked at Logan's clenched fist and Lorelei's frightened expression, then put her hand on Bill's arm. "You do know that we are mutants, too, right? Bill, honey, I think you scared them."

Bill clicked his tongue on the roof of his mouth. "Oh, shit, kids, I'm sorry. I figured you knew. When you get as old as we are, you can tell your own kind right away."

Lorelei rested her shaking hands in her lap as the tension eased a bit in Logan's shoulders and he muttered "it's okay" to her in a low voice aside. He took a bite of meat and a swallow of beer before he responded. "Yeah, you surprised us. We don't run into other mutants too much."

"We do," said Bill, "because of our work."

"We spend a good part of the year traveling," explained Linda, "to provide aid to the lone clusters of mutant civilizations in Canada and the Northern U.S.."

"I didn't even know such things existed," said Lorelei.

Linda was surprised. "Oh, sweetie, you know not all mutants look as human as we do. For a long time, the ones who can't blend in with normal society_ - _or whose abilities are too dangerous to be around others_ - _have grouped together in more rural areas to depend on each another. We go to those who need our help."

"Linda's a translator," explained Bill. "Her mutation allows her to speak, understand, and write any language. People from all over the world wind up here sometimes, and she's invaluable," he finished proudly.

"My grandmother grew up on a First Nations reserve in B.C., and she gave me the name Wordsong. I started using Linda when I enrolled in mainstream school, though. And Bill has a healing power," said Linda.

Lorelei looked at Logan, who pursed his lips and then said, "Me, too."

Bill appraised Logan and nodded. "I thought so. But my ability extends beyond me; they call me Doc. The healing comes from my hands, and so I just need to touch the person who is ill or injured, and it heals them almost completely, so that they can get well on their own. That's why we travel so much, to care for mutants who need the medical attention. Is healing your only ability? You look too big for that to be the case."

"No," said Logan. He looked around them to be sure that no one else was close by, then surreptitiously extended three shining metal claws from the back of one hand, while Bill and Linda stared in awe. He sheathed the adamantium blades suddenly back into his hand, where the torn skin sealed itself back up in an instant. "Wolverine," he mentioned, flexing his fingers.

Bill whistled. "Nice quality to have, and you never get hurt."

"Oh, it hurts all right," said Logan.

"And what about you, Lorelei?" asked Linda. "Are you going to tell us why you smell like cinnamon sugar?"

Lorelei sat up straight next to her husband, trying to overcome her shyness. "Sensory projections," she explained in her lovely voice. "My mutation sends messages to your nervous system to perceive being around me in a pleasurable way_ - _whatever makes you feel the best."

"Well, that must put your husband in a good mood all the time!" joked Bill.

"Actually, Logan isn't really affected by my mutation's powers," replied Lorelei, looking at Logan. "Only a little bit."

"You still put me in a good mood," Logan put in, rubbing her back tenderly._ "Siren."_

"Aww, how sweet," admired Linda. "But that doesn't explain about your baby_ - _I thought maybe your mutation was part of that, gave you that ability."

"Oh," said Lorelei. "No, that's just old-fashioned biology." Her face reddened in a blush again.

Bill was astounded. "That's incredible," he said slowly. "When you mentioned that you were expecting, I wondered if I was wrong about my assumption, and that you were human instead. But two mutants having a child . . . ." He shook his head. "What a precious gift."

Lorelei felt tears spring to her eyes at this sentiment. Logan patted her knee. "What was that you were saying about British Columbia?"

"There is a mutant settlement on one of the islands out there on the west coast, in the Inside Passage before it dumps into the Pacific and the Gulf of Alaska," volunteered Bill.

Linda added, "It's a very small population_ - _a few hundred people, including humans_ - _and it's a nice, friendly place because of that, where everybody knows and helps each other. My family has lived there since I was a little girl, and my sister is still there. Bill and I spend the whole winter there, since that's a rough time to travel."

"It sounds really nice," said Lorelei, somewhat wistfully. Logan watched her, looking thoughtful.

Bill clocked her interest. "If you like, we can tell you more about it, and point it out on a map tomorrow in the daylight." He jerked his chin up, indicating the darkening sky.

Logan cleared his throat. "Thank you for inviting us to share your dinner. And for . . . revealing yourselves to us."

"It's nothing, son," Bill assured him.

_Son, except I'm pretty sure I'm old enough to be your grandpa,_ thought Logan. He rose, stretching to his full height, and said, "We should be getting our things ready to turn in. Appreciate it all."

As they walked back to their sleeping bags on the tarp, exhausted from another long day, Logan spoke to Lorelei in a low voice. "You seemed to like what they were saying about that island place, Baby."

She answered honestly. "I did_ - _it sounded nice."

"You want to go there?"

"I'm not sure. I love the idea of being with you in the mountains. But I'm also a bit nervous about being isolated."

He stroked her hair. "I know. Maybe it's worth learning more, then, and seeing whether this new place could be good for us. And the little one."

Lorelei smiled at that, dropping onto her sleeping bag and pulling off her sneakers. She crawled inside her bag, shucking off her jeans under that cover, and waited for him to do the same in his own bag. Then she yawned, pillowed her head onto his chest with her arm across his waist, and fell asleep.

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Lorelei woke early, the sun not yet up in the sky, just a very faint gray glow visible between the distant trees in the east. Her head was now awkwardly supported by her balled-up sweatshirt, and her fingertips were cold where they poked out of the top of her sleeping bag. She blinked her eyes, blind in the dimness, and reached out, seeking Logan.

A big, warm hand gripped hers in the dark, then slid its way down her chilly arm and over to the zipper of her sleeping bag, quietly easing it down. A second warm hand reached in now and joined the first, exploring over her body, then she felt him grasp her hips and drowsily pull her, sleeping bag and all, snug against him and his substantial morning erection.

She realized what he was about to do, and tried to quickly shimmy out of her panties, but his strong fingers got there first, sliding inside them and easily ripping the fabric apart. He ran his hand down her inner thigh and lifted her whole leg over his hip, lazily penetrating her for a sleepy round of daybreak sex.

Linda, who meditated for an hour at sunrise every day, heard the muffled rustling of nylon in the dark and smiled to herself, tiptoeing away to a new location to give the young lovers their privacy.


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"Morning, Beautiful."

Lorelei opened her eyes, shutting them quickly against the brightness of the day. She had dozed off after her first wake-up call from Logan, and from the sun's position in the sky, it had to be several hours later. She rubbed her hands over her eyelids, then tried opening them again.

Logan was kneeling next to her, grinning, holding out a steaming mug of coffee in his hand. "Peace offering," he said quietly, "Sorry, but I'm _not_ sorry about the panties."

Considering the way her body responded to Logan's touch, skilled even when he was half-asleep, she thought she had not come out too badly in their encounter, despite the ruined panties. "I accept," she said, gratefully taking the coffee.

"When you get your pants on," he leered, "come back over to that table with Bill and Linda. They got out a map to show us that island."

After draining her coffee and getting herself ready for the day in the campground bathroom, she joined Logan with the two older mutants, the map he'd mentioned already spread out across the table. Logan smiled at her as she leaned in close to his side, and lifted his arm around her, putting his hand into the back pocket of her jeans.

"Good morning, Lorelei. What I was just showing James, here," Bill pointed to the map, "is that your route would not be too different than the highways you were already planning on driving. You just head a little further west, right here, get to Vancouver and take a ferry to Nanaimo, then keep going north to Port Hardy. That's where the ferries leave going farther north to Prince Rupert, Ketchikan, and so on."

"A ferry?" Lorelei asked.

"Car ferry," confirmed Linda. "They leave several times a week, and you'll want the Inside Passage route that goes to the Mid Coast. You'd disembark with your vehicle here." She tapped at a splotch on the map, the tiny island dwarfed on the paper by its long, apostrophied First Nations name. "The original name is hard to pronounce, so we usually just end up saying 'The Island.'"

Logan traced the highways with his eyes, assessing the mileage and road names. "Well, thanks again for the help. If we end up deciding to go there, will we see you?"

"In a couple months," said Bill. "We work our way across Southern Canada slowly, until the end of fall. A few more towns we need to visit."

"But if you go, you should look up my sister_ - _my twin sister," suggested Linda. "She lives there year-round, and knows the whole place like the back of her hand. She and her husband own the local hardware store. They are not mutants, but obviously they know all about us, and they'll be a great help in getting you settled, I just know it. Her name is Kathy Myers. I'll write down her address."

Lorelei committed the name to memory, then leaned forward and hugged Linda, something she didn't normally risk with strangers because of her mutation, and how captivating her touch can sometimes be. Linda closed her eyes, inhaling deeply of the sweet scent coming from Lorelei's skin and hair, and whispered, "And you take care of that little baby."

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Several thousand miles down the road and a few more nights of camping later, they'd made a decision. "We'll try it," said Logan firmly. "We'll see how it goes at this Island place, if we like it."

"Okay, Babe," said Lorelei, scanning the road ahead of her. "Logan, can we stop in up there? I need to go to the bathroom."

Logan turned into the brightly-lit gas station, stopping at a pump before Lorelei jumped out urgently. He inserted his card for gas and turned to the car to open up the tank.

"Gotta light?" He turned, and behind him a twenty-something young woman approached out of the dark, a cigarette between two fingers.

"No," he said shortly, turning back to his car. _And it's also stupid to smoke near gas pumps,_ he finished in his head.

She sighed loudly, continuing to walk towards him, stopping and leaning against the pump he was using. She had short, thin, blondish hair and wore lots of makeup. Her jeans were obscenely tight, and she seemed to be deliberately letting her jacket flop open to show off a very low-cut tank top and lots of cleavage. _If we weren't out in the boonies, I'd say she was a hooker, _thought Logan_, but I'll bet instead she's just a bored kid._

"Nice car," she commented. He said nothing. She came a little closer, as if to get a better look at the vehicle, which truly was nothing special. "Wow, you're like, super strong. Your arms are huge. You must work out all the time."

He still was silent, and moved not-so-subtly away from her, using a squeegee to clean the bugs off the windshield. She didn't take the hint, and followed him, leaning her ass on the hood of the car. "There's no gym here; there's nothing here. I'd really like to go someplace else." She scooted a little closer to him. "Someplace better."

He walked around the car again, replacing the nozzle on the pump and leaning his hand on it, waiting for his receipt. He turned around and she was _right there_, and his elbow bumped into one of her boobs. "Oh sorry!" she said, with a laugh that she probably thought was sexy. She put one hand on his arm, as if to steady him, and he jerked it out from under her touch.

As she was still appraising his body, calculating what move she could possibly make next, Lorelei emerged from the convenience store, moving slowly, her face gray and her hair hanging somewhat lank over one shoulder. Logan looked up and spotted her at the same time as the young woman, who gave kind of an exasperated laugh and nodded her head at Lorelei: "We get sooo many hitchhikers in this area."

Finally looking at the young woman's face, Logan gave her a wounding glare, and walked around the car to open the passenger side door for Lorelei. She slid in, and he bolted around to the driver's side, put the key in the ignition, and drove away, leaving the rude young woman open-mouthed behind them.

"I threw up," Lorelei said in a miserable voice.

"Aw, Baby," Logan sympathized, patting her thigh. He reached for her metal water bottle, and shook it to see if there was any water left inside. He passed it over to her and she took a sip.

"Who was that girl?"

He grimaced. "I don't know. Local idiot."

"She looked like she wanted you."

"I don't care."

Lorelei looked out the window. "She thought I was a hitchhiker?"

"Baby, who gives a shit what some random girl thinks? She's in the dust, don't let it upset you."

Lorelei looked surprised. "I'm not upset. But I do think I need a shower if I'm getting mistaken for a hitchhiker. And a real bed. Do you think we could find someplace to stay in tonight instead of camping?"

"Of course, Lor. Looks like there's a bigger town up the road." He was relieved that her train of logic had not been heading where he thought. _Lorelei doesn't play games, though, _he reminded himself._ She wouldn't sit there jealous and pout about some skank coming on to me, because she knows I love her. _As if to demonstrate this, Lorelei leaned over and put her head on his shoulder, which made it hard for him to drive, but he didn't ask her to move.

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"That feels so much better," enthused Lorelei, freshly showered, with the color back into her face. She sat on the edge of the bed, wearing one of Logan's t-shirts and nothing else, combing out her damp hair.

He thought she looked adorable. "I went out and got you some real food, too." He indicated the container of fresh pasta with chicken that was on the table. She flew over to it, inhaling its steam, and blew him a kiss before she dug in. He chuckled, and headed into the bathroom for a shower of his own.

After relaxing under the hot spray, he toweled off and came back into the bedroom of the hotel room: a much more clean and comfortable one than their first night on the road. Lorelei had devoured about half of the dinner, and was now curled up on her side with her knees drawn up, fast asleep. He grabbed her fork and wolfed down the rest of her food_ - _no sense in wasting it_ - _before heading back into the bathroom to brush his teeth.

Turning out the light on the bedside table, he maneuvered his arms underneath her, and got her positioned up on the pillow and under the covers before he slid in naked behind her, spooning her body and wrapping his arm around her waist to keep her tight against him.

But the contact began awakening things in his groin, and he automatically started growing firmer now that her ass was snugly tucked into him. He moved a tad back from her, and tried to distract himself with other thoughts.

The flirty young woman at the gas station had actually reminded him a lot of the type of women he'd had relationships with before Lorelei. Well, _relations_, not relationships: it used to be that just a quick fuck was good enough. Waitresses, barmaids . . . and yeah, one or two actual hookers. This piece of his past seemed even more sordid when compared with the sweetness of his wife in his arms, but he put that pang of shame behind him.

He knew that he had punished himself for a long time. With only fragmented visions of his history taking the place of memories in his mind, he recalled enough to know that whatever _it_ was that he'd done best _was not very nice._ Frustrated and angry at the murderous animal that he knew was inside him, he tumbled through his life, using his fury to keep people at a distance, and bedding these hellcats who scratched and bit him, the way he thought he deserved.

With Lorelei, he saw her looking at him with such sincere trust and love that he actually conceived that he could be exonerated of his violence, and worthy of her. She welcomed him to her beautiful body, allowed his love to heal her from the abuse she'd known, nurtured their child inside of her . . . it gave him hope that he could always be the man she needed, instead of the feral beast he considered himself to be.

Which is not to say that he didn't still feel the more savage urges, on occasion, he just knew where to draw the line. He didn't want his Siren to scratch him up (_well, maybe a little_), but he would have loved to lift her up against a wall and take her hard, pound into her like a jackhammer. The first time he'd fantasized about that while he was in the shower, he'd almost ejaculated on his feet. But he didn't want to scare her with the base, animal side of his nature, or take the chance that it would remind her of being raped, and so he'd rather remain tender and fragile with her, and keep the rest locked up in his head.

Thinking about all of this, he felt his cock get hard, rubbing against her ass again. He started to shift away, then realized that he wasn't rubbing against her, _she_ was rubbing against _him_. At some point, she'd awakened and started gently easing herself back into him, waiting for him to notice. Well, he'd noticed.

Trying to stay as close to her as possible, he slipped one hand underneath her shirt - _his_ shirt - and cupped a breast with his palm. With his other hand he reached down and, since she was not wearing panties, used his long fingers to assist his now almost-painfully-hard member inside of her. She took a slow breath in and exhaled, her body relaxing back into him as he spooned her, and her walls clenched him deep inside. He buried his nose in her soft hair and started to move.


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

" . . . yes, and we'll call you when we get there in two days. Bye!" Lorelei hung up the telephone in their room as Logan came in, clutching two cups of coffee from the breakfast buffet downstairs. She rose, and crossed the room to take one of the cups from him, giving him a quick hug around the waist to show her gratitude for the caffeine boost.

"Who was that?" asked Logan, removing the lid from his cup so that it could cool down.

"Xavier," Lorelei was energetically stirring a little extra sugar into her coffee, "we've been playing phone tag for the last few days since we keep moving around, and he was just able to call me back now. He says we should get a cellphone," she kept her eyes down while she said this so that he would not see the mischievous look in her eyes. Logan's response to the cellphone question was always the same.

"Who the fuck would I call? You're right here with me."

"I know, Baby," she said, leaning over to kiss him. "I told him we'd think about it when we had a permanent address. Anyway, I wanted to give him our plan and how we were getting there. He said that he thinks he's heard of this place, and he and Hank were going to try to ask a few old friends and contacts what they knew about it."

Logan nodded, sipping his black coffee. "We'll get to Vancouver by tonight, and all our ferry tickets are reserved." He was momentarily distracted with the view as she bent over to put her shoes on, and she grinned at him and winked. "Are you going to be okay on the boats? I was worried about you feeling sick."

She frowned. "Me, too. But I've been feeling fine today, and I don't usually get motion sickness. That book I got suggests ginger candy for queasiness, do you think we could find some?"

"Definitely, Love."

"I'm excited, though."

He stood up, pulling her to him and kissing her thoroughly. "Me, too."

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Two days later, they were driving down a street, which was quiet at mid-afternoon, in this place they knew as the Island. Logan held a scrap of paper in his hand, which bore the address of the hardware store that they were looking for. Lorelei was counting off the numbers of the businesses on the road, which were few and far between. "There," she pointed, and Logan pulled in.

Entering the glass door of the shop, which pinged a small bell as they opened it, they saw a gray-haired man behind a counter, wearing wire-rimmed glasses and reading a newspaper. He looked up, and did a double-take when he noticed that they were strangers. Straightening up, he smiled at them and called out, "Can I help you folks?"

"Hope so," said Logan. "We met some people out on the road a few days who know you: Bill and Linda. They told us to look you up if we came here."

"Oh!" Recognition dawned on the man's face. "You're the newlyweds that Linda called about_ - _she and my Kathy are sisters, and talk on the phone every couple of days or so. I'm Jim Myers." He stuck out his hand.

Logan shook with him. "James Logan."

Jim grinned at their shared name, and gave a short, barking laugh. "Well, hi there, Jimmy."

Logan stared at him. "Logan. Just Logan."

Lorelei scooted closer. "I'm Lorelei."

Jim stuck out his hand to her, and after a beat, Lorelei shook it. Jim's smile grew a little more broad at her touch, and he breathed her sweet smell in through his nose, giving a small sigh. "Well, Kathy is going to be disappointed that she's not here_ - _she went home already to get dinner started. But there's plenty of food for the two of you to join us tonight, if you like the sound of that."

"Sure," said Logan, glancing at Lorelei, who nodded. "We need to find a hotel, too."

Jim reached beneath the counter and pulled out a worn black leather address book. "We don't exactly need Yellow Pages here," he chuckled. "I'll call Dan over at the B&B and ask him to get a room ready for you."

"Thank you," said Lorelei. "Do you also have a restroom?" Her frequent bathroom breaks had escalated during the two days of ferry rides, because she'd been downing lots of water on the windy decks in hopes of keeping her stomach under control.

The kindly man removed his glasses and looked apologetic. "I'm so sorry, hon, but it's out of order, right now. The part I need to fix it will probably not be here until day after tomorrow. Until then, we've just been using the bathroom at the bar next door_ - _go ahead, they don't mind. They aren't officially open until five o'clock, anyway, so you aren't disturbing any customers."

Lorelei was out the door as Jim picked up the phone to dial the owner of the bed and breakfast inn. She walked across the packed-dirt parking area, which she now saw was shared between the hardware store and another small building, with 'Sports Bar' painted simply on the wall beside the door.

She pushed it open, and immediately in front of her she saw a long, gleaming wooden bar dominating the empty room, with two large televisions hung near the ceiling at either end of it. She could hear a loud radio playing through a doorway behind the bar that must go to a kitchen of some kind, since the sound of dishes rattling accompanied the music. She looked down the mahogany bar, and saw another doorway to an alcove opposite her, with a sign hung above it that said 'Restrooms.' With relief, she made a beeline for the Ladies' Room.

Her needs now taken care of, she washed her hands and pulled her hair out of its ponytail, using her fingers to massage her scalp and temples. She was looking forward to not being on the road anymore for a while. She didn't want to tell Logan, because they were so close to finally being able to settle down, but she was feeling exhausted from all of the driving. She knew that if she mentioned it to him, he'd bend over backward trying to make her more comfortable.

Dampening a paper towel under the faucet, she wiped her face, feeling cool and refreshed, and bringing some color back to her fair skin, which seemed pretty pale from the rigors of travel. Wadding up her trash and tossing it, she exited the bathroom and back into the bar.

"Hel-_lo,"_ said a voice. "So _you're_ what smells so good in here."


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Lorelei stopped, both out of surprise and because a very tall blond man was now blocking her path. He was in front of the wooden bar, holding a dishpan full of clean glasses and standing between her and the front door. She watched him cock his head, inhaling deeply, and his voice sounded smooth, but with a slightly roughened edge to it, like he'd been drinking whiskey. "Where did you come from?"

"I- I just came over from next door, to use the bathroom," she responded quietly. She wanted to walk around him, but she didn't want to have to get closer to him to do that.

"Mmm," he said, sniffing the air again as he registered what she was saying. He turned slightly, and set his dishpan down on the bar to call over his shoulder toward the kitchen. "Blaze!"

A head popped out from the doorway to the kitchen, where the music was still playing. She saw a flash of bright red, and the head disappeared back into the kitchen and the radio abruptly shut off. The person called Blaze came back through the doorway then, another tall, broad-shouldered man, this one with flaming red hair the color of a ruby sparkling in the sun . . . and eyes to match. He was clearly a mutant of some kind.

"Female." The blond man said, his voice loaded with inscrutable meaning. "_She's_ that sweet smell in here."

The red-haired man, Blaze, stared at her with his glowing eyes, looked her up and down and sniffed the air, more subtly than his friend. He said nothing.

"Deek here yet?" asked the first man, and Blaze shook his head. "Maybe we should call him-he's gonna want to know."

Lorelei had been feeling nervous and uncomfortable, standing there with both of them looking at her, but at this last comment she started getting legitimately scared. The blond man still stood between her and the exit, and Blaze, although behind the bar, was technically even closer to the front door than either of them. She had nowhere to go, unless it was back into the bathroom, but what good would that be? She'd be more cornered than she was now.

The blond man faced her square-on, trying to make eye contact, but she looked to the side and slightly down, not wanting him to look at her. That was a mistake, because then he took a couple of steps toward her to get her attention, leaving her with the choice of standing still and letting him get nearer to her personal space, or backing into the doorway of the alcove behind her. She backed up.

"Hey, guys," a voice called from the kitchen. _Someone else, _thought Lorelei. _There must be a back door from that way._ This voice was softer than the blond man's. A shorter guy with wavy light brown hair and a beard to match walked in from the kitchen to stand next to Blaze behind the bar. His eyes widened when he saw Lorelei, and he seemed almost to be tasting the air, as well as smelling it.

He was clearly working on what question he wanted to ask, but the blond man beat him to it. "She came from next door, Deek." He'd called this over his shoulder to the new man, Deek, but now he turned his head back to Lorelei and took another step in her direction. "I was just trying to introduce myself to her."

Lorelei inched backward some more, now completely certain that she would not be able to dart around the men and out the door if they didn't allow her to go, and she wondered whether Logan's enhanced hearing would be able to register it all the way over at the hardware store if she screamed.

The bearded Deek and Blaze were still evaluating her, and their energy seemed to push the tall blond man even closer to her. He was so big and so close that he raised both arms and rested his hands on either side of the doorway to the alcove, in which she was now trapped. Her temples were beaded with sweat and she was nearly shaking, which just made her more scared, since she knew that sweating and flushing would only make the attractive scent that she was projecting even stronger.

Blond Man was still trying to catch her eye, and she kept her gaze down, debating whether she should say anything to him in hopes that he'd leave her alone, or whether the (lovely) sound of her voice would just spur him on more.

"Get your hands away from her before I rip them off for you." Logan's low voice carried into the room, sounding deadly, but incredibly reassuring to her. The blond man took his hands off the doorframe to turn and look at Wolverine, who had just walked in the front door with both sets of claws out.

Deek appraised him, inhaling slightly, and shot a look at the blond man before he addressed Logan: "She yours?"

Logan sheathed one set of claws inside, extending this hand to Lorelei. Trying not to run, she got quickly to Logan's side and he gripped her arm to position her behind him_ - _now she was mostly hidden behind Logan's back, and could barely see the three strange men. "My wife," said Logan, with steel in each word.

"Wife?" Deek repeated with surprise. "How . . . official."

"She smells heavenly," purred the whiskey-voiced blond man, and a fine tremble went through Logan's body. Lorelei realized that if he hadn't needed to get her out of there he probably would have killed the guy, on the spot.

"Don't mind Hypno," said Deek wryly. "He has a bit of a one-track mind." _Hypno, _Lorelei thought. _Is that why he was trying to get me to look into his eyes? Another mutant._

"Forcing himself on women?" asked Logan.

Hypno laughed. "Force? Oh no, I find them all _very_ willing."

Logan seethed, taking a step closer to him, claws pointed. Blaze began easing himself around the end of the bar, and Logan stopped. He knew he could take on all three of them, if necessary, but it would be too dangerous for Lorelei. He dropped his claws and re-fastened his hold on Lorelei's arm.

"I don't ever want to see you near her again," he threatened Hypno, before turning and escorting Lorelei straight out the door, slamming it shut behind them.

Hypno laughed again. "Well, that was fun. What do you think, Deek? Damn, she is delicious! This whole place smells fucking amazing."

"It's her mutation," said Deek. "I was getting all kinds of stuff coming off of her."

Hypno nodded. "Hope she's sticking around here. What about him? Knives in his hands?"

Deek shrugged. "Either way, he's got a clear weakness."

"Her." Blaze spoke for the first time, his voice deep, but sounding somewhat scratchy, like he didn't use it very much.

The other two men agreed. "Been too long since we got a new female," commented Hypno.

_And there is something special about that one,_ observed Deek to himself. Out loud he said, "Well, we're going to have to get some answers later. I'm going to go count the cash drawers in_ - _we've only got thirty minutes 'til open."


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Logan gripped the steering wheel so tightly, Lorelei thought there must be finger marks indented in it. Her heart rate was still high, and she took some deep breaths, trying to calm the shivers that she was feeling wrack her limbs.

"Mutants?" she ventured.

"Yeah. All of them," said Logan. Lorelei was startled by this. She had figured out Blaze, obviously, because of the red irises of his eyes, and it seemed logical that Hypno was a mutant as well, with some kind of mind control or telepathy. But the bearded guy, Deek, hadn't really seemed out of the ordinary. Logan could sense her confusion and filled her in. "He's a feral, like me. Dammit!"

Logan slammed his hand down on the dashboard, and Lorelei gave a little jump, looking at him with wide eyes and licking her dry lips. She saw him scowl as he navigated the streets of the island to their lodging, and decided to wait until he was less distracted to continue the conversation.

Screeching to a stop on the curb outside of the Victorian bed and breakfast, Logan leapt out of the car and stalked around to her side to open the door for her, his expression completely absorbed with whatever was on his mind. Yanking their duffel bags from the trunk, he tossed them over his shoulder and climbed the stoop to check in.

The girl at the front desk sat up straight when she saw Logan approaching, and no wonder: his anger was snapping around him like electricity, his big frame imposing in the slightly cutesy interior of the inn. The girl snuck glances at the black look on his face while she checked them in and produced the key that went to their little cottage, pointing them toward the back door.

Logan grabbed Lorelei's hand, flinging open the door and walking purposefully through the back garden to a smaller structure, which sported a purple front door emblazoned in curlicued script with the word 'Lavender.' Once inside, Logan tossed their bags on the floor, running both hands through his hair as he paced around the close quarters of the room. A bed covered in an embroidered quilt (lavender fabric, naturally) stood at one end with a tall bureau, on the opposite wall was a round wooden table that was already laid with two place settings for breakfast.

Lorelei sank down onto a little cushioned bench at the foot of the bed, wiping her damp palms on her jeans. She watched him walk in circles for a minute, then said, "James?"

He stopped and stared at the ground just beside her feet, his hands on his hips. "We never should have come here," he said bluntly.

She felt a small stab in her chest and rose, crossing the room to get closer to him.

"Because of them?" she asked in a shaking voice.

He laughed, but there was no humor in it; it was a sharp, breathless sound.

"This should be funny, but it's not; we travel across the entire country, to a remote island location, no less, so that I can get you somewhere I thought was safe, and we're here less than an hour before you're being harassed in a bar by ferals and some mind-fuck asshole who looks at you like you're dinner. What was I thinking?" He put his hands over his face and gave a strangled roar.

"Logan, you're scaring me. I don't understand."

"Because- fucking ferals- that asshole." He was so furious, he couldn't finish a thought.

"Bill and Linda said-" she started.

"Bill and Linda clearly don't understand how it is with ferals," he spit through clenched teeth. "The bearded guy and the redhead are both ferals. That other mutant is just a dick. But they're going to challenge me; they _were_ challenging me. I'm new in town, so obviously to them, I must want to fight for dominance. That's why he asked me if you were mine."

"I'm sorry_ - _I couldn't get out of there," she explained, her stomach sinking.

He looked at her, wild eyes vehement. "Hey. NO. It's _not_ your fault. It's a stupid hierarchy thing. But now that they've seen you and smelled you, they'll probably try to figure out how they can have you." She flinched. He noticed and nodded at her. "That's my point, it's just how they are: predators. Driven by instinct and impulse to get what they want. And shit! I'm no better than they are."

Tears sprang to her eyes as he prowled around the room once more, reminding her of a caged tiger.

"My human side knows it's primitive, but I _do_ want to fight them, and win. I smelled how aroused they were by you. I want to cut all their throats out." He punched the wall, keeping his back to her. "And I want to tear all your clothes off and fuck you senseless, get my scent all over you, mark your body as mine. I'm an animal_ - _I'm no better than they are," he repeated bitterly.

"You are not an animal."

He turned and dropped down onto that little bench she'd vacated near the bed, the cheerful needlepoint on its cushion at odds with his angry mood, muscles quivering with rage. Lorelei took a few deep, slow breaths, expanding her ribcage and relaxing her own trembling limbs.

She kicked off her shoes and walked over to where he sat, deliberately moving into his space so that he had to look up at her, and she stopped between his legs, his feet on either side of hers.

"I'm your wife," she said, grasping the hem of her shirt and pulling it up and off her head. "You have all of me." She unhooked her bra, dropping it on the ground. "Let me have all of you. Give me the Wolverine." Her fingers moved to the button at her waist, undoing it and jerking down her zipper, then pushing jeans and panties together down over her hips and off her legs and feet.

"No," he said, making an effort not to shout at her.

"The animal doesn't control you," she continued, "it's just one part of you, and you don't need to hide it from me. I _love_ you."

"Lorelei. Stop." His tone grew harsh. "You don't know what you're asking."

She held her ground, even though she thought he must smell the twinge of fear she was feeling. "Then show me. I don't believe it_ - _I _know_ you are more than the beast inside."

Without hesitation, he stood up with a primal growl, grasping her naked body and crushing his mouth to hers with such ferocity their teeth scraped together, and his whiskered cheek collided painfully with her nose. He ran a hand quickly along her back, following the cleft of her ass down until he reached all the way to the moist center between her legs, which made her draw breath sharply.

He now planted both of his hands on her ass with an audible smacking sound, and lifted her off the ground to his waist, breaking off their kiss and pushing her face into his neck. She heard the metallic _snikt!_ sound of his claws coming out, and she quailed, but he squeezed her tightly to him. He adjusted her so that he held her with just one arm, her legs wrapped around his waist, and the sound of ripping fabric followed as he shredded his own jeans and let the pieces fall to the floor. There was the singing sound of adamantium being sheathed, then she felt his cock push inside of her.

Lorelei lifted her head to meet his gaze, determined to show him how she accepted him and this nature. Logan's face was a mixture of expressions: certitude that he'd find terror in her eyes (and surprised when he didn't), evaluation to see if she'd had enough, triumph at impaling her body with his . . . and vulnerability, if she would reject this side of him.

His pupils dilating, he snarled and took several steps forward, propping her onto the sturdy round table and crashing their lips together again to push her so that she had to lay back on its surface. He straightened up and gripped her thighs, his fingers leaving red marks behind as he began thrusting into her. Hard. The table shook with his movements and started making a rhythmic banging sound as it hit the wall, where it left a pattern of little dents.

He could hear himself making hoarse grunts, but tuned them out as he listened to the arousing sound of her panting in time with the wooden table hammering on the wall. He locked his eyes on her body lying before him, her breasts undulating so attractively that he lifted one hand to possess them roughly; his hand, covered with dark hair, stood out against her milky whiteness. His blood rushed through his body as she drove him insane, and he leaned forward and bit the skin over her ribs.

Pulling out of her suddenly, he lifted her off the table and to her feet, rotating her by her shoulders and doing something he'd never let the Wolverine do before: he applied pressure to the back of her neck, bent her over the table and took her from behind. Spreading her legs so he could penetrate her more deeply, he held tightly to her hips and brought her back down onto him with every stroke. Increasing his speed, he saw her press her palms flat on the table, bracing herself against his exertions. His eyes traveled over her arms, the smooth skin of her back, and her waist, curving in an hourglass shape on the sides of her stomach-

He froze. _Her stomach._

Obviously, they'd continued having _lots_ of sex after they found out she was pregnant, and he knew that was fine. But he'd never smashed her down against a surface like this, taking his pleasure repeatedly without paying heed to the comfort of their baby, growing inside her. Abruptly, Lorelei found herself swept up against him on the floor, his beard rasping against the delicate skin of her breasts as he choked "Are you okay? I lost my mind, I forgot. I'm so sorry."

She stroked his hair and kissed it, soothing him. "Everything is fine; _everyone_ is fine. Logan . . . you _are not_ an animal."

She reached for his hand, lacing it palm-to-palm with hers, and swung a leg up to straddle his lap and slip him back inside of her. She began rocking slowly on top of him, and he placed his other hand over her belly, protecting their baby while they lost themselves completely in each other.


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

"What time is it?"

Logan looked at the clock. "Oh, shit. I told Jim that we'd be at their house for dinner at seven." He jumped up from where he was cuddling his wife's naked body on the floor, looking for his jeans before he noticed the frayed scraps of blue all over and remembered that those were his jeans. He grabbed for more clothes in his duffel, noticing as he did so that Lorelei had two bright pink marks on her ass from his hands. His stomach twisted.

"Baby, I'm sorry. Again. I hope I didn't hurt you."

"Logan." She hesitated, selecting the right words to say. "We are sharing a life now. And I love you. I want you to be authentic with me and not feel like you have to treat me like I'm going to break."

He pulled his shirt on, shaking his head. "I don't want to be too rough with you. I don't want you to get hurt."

"I don't either, Love. But I'm not going to try to domesticate a Wolverine. And you showing me the animal in your nature is not the same as rape."

He whipped his head around to look at her. He didn't realize that she'd noticed how hard he tried to ensure that sex with him didn't ever bring up those horrific memories. The first time he had ever kissed her, back at Xavier's school, when he'd leaned in to steal her lips with his, she'd gotten so freaked out she fell onto the ground and ran away.

She nodded to acknowledge what he was thinking about. "We've come a long way since then. Logan, you are the sweetest, gentlest, most tender man in the world." He cocked an eyebrow at her, and she added, "to me." She wrapped her arms around his neck, pressing her breasts softly into his taut abdominal muscles, and rubbed the end of her nose across his. "I trust you," she whispered. "And I want to be able to give you what you need."

He looked straight into her eyes. "You are all I need," he stated firmly, and kissed her soundly to emphasize this. Continuing to taste her, he was musing on the perfection of her breasts squishing on him and massaging them with great attention to detail when he looked at the clock again. "Shit!"

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They were actually only about fifteen minutes late_ - _twenty, tops_ - _when they rang the doorbell to Jim and Kathy's house.

Kathy answered, greatly resembling her twin sister Linda save that her hair was cut in a short silver bob at her jawline. "Logan, Lorelei_ - _nice to meet you!" she said brightly. "Please come in, and thank you for joining us for dinner. You two must be starving, Jim says you took the ferry from Port Hardy first thing this morning?"

Logan nodded, guiding Lorelei into the house after their hostess by his hand on the small of her back. The house was replete with oak trim and paneling everywhere, giving it a comfortable, warm glow, and a healthy amount of clutter made the place look lived-in, and not fussy. Kathy led them back through the kitchen to a big table spread with food, clearly ushering them straight to the family dining table, nothing formal.

Jim was seated at one of the chairs facing them, another man to his left, at what appeared to be the head of the table. The stranger was much older, probably in his eighties, and was resting his chin on his gnarled, clasped hands. Jim half-rose, gesturing by way of introduction, "This is Kathy's uncle, Rod."

Logan and Lorelei nodded politely, but Rod stuck out his right hand from his position at the table, expecting them to walk closer and shake with him, and they complied. With Lorelei in particular, he seemed to hang on to her just a hair too long, but he released her and she sat down at the table next to Logan.

Logan described their cross-country drive to Jim while Lorelei heaped her plate with spaghetti and meatballs, drowning in a tomato sauce that Kathy had made from scratch that afternoon. She shyly asked Kathy if she might be able to get the recipe from her. "My background is in chemistry, so I'm best at measuring and following instructions-not so good at making things up as I go along."

"Of course," Kathy promised. "I'd be glad to help you learn to make it. You are eating for two, after all!"

Lorelei dropped her fork with a clatter, and Logan swiftly put his hand on her thigh under the table to reassure her. Comprehension dawned on Kathy as she realized what she'd just said, and how pink Lorelei's face had grown.

"I'm so sorry," she said, lowering her voice with gravity. "That was rude of me. My sister Linda is absolutely baby-crazy, and she had already told me that you were expecting, because she thought you'd need help, being new in town. Please forgive me for being so nosy." She shot a guilty look at Jim, who glared at her, then quickly adjusted his expression to one of contriteness as he regarded Lorelei.

He cleared his throat. "If you don't mind my changing the subject, I believe Rod had something he wanted to speak with you two young folks about."

The old man leaned onto the arm of his chair, nodding. "Yep, I was thinking that your arrival here was pretty fortunate. I moved in with Kathy and Jim, here, a few months back, because of a bad fall that I had."

Kathy patted his wrinkly hand. "Uncle Rod lived on his own land on the outskirts of town."

_Outskirts?_ thought Logan. _How can a town this small have outskirts?_

"His place is out there all by itself and off the grid with no phone, so when he fell he was alone in pain for a whole day before we went out there and found him." Kathy clucked her tongue. "He had to go to the hospital by seaplane and wound up in surgery, with a pin in his hip. I told him that he had to live with us from now on and accept a little help."

Rod rolled his eyes good-naturedly, and spoke again. "Anyway, I have this land with my old cabin on it, and now that I'm here I think it's time to sell. Only problem is, the place needs some work: roof, flashing, insulation_ - _and the kitchen is nonexistent, I'll just tell you right now."

Jim broke in. "We were wondering if you'd consider moving in to the place, since you came here to the Island. Rod would let you live there rent-free if you perform the labor to fix it up for him to sell."

"I'd provide the materials and tools, 'course," said Rod.

Logan quirked his lip. "It sounds like you need a contractor, not a tenant."

"I've owned a hardware store for twenty-five years," Jim smiled, "I'm giving Rod all the supplies the place needs at cost, since we're family, and I'd be glad to give you my knowhow on anything from carpentry to concrete, you name it. You're young and strong," he gestured to Logan's large biceps, "with the energy to get it all done."

Lorelei started pinching her napkin in her lap, and Logan saw this, lacing his fingers through hers. "To be honest," he said eventually. "We're not sure if we're going to stay here, after all."

Kathy and Jim opened their mouths in identical expressions of surprise. Kathy recovered first. "But Jim said that when you got in this afternoon, you seemed interested in settling. I mean, this is a pretty remote place to come all the way just for a visit. There's hardly enough town to have alienated you already_ - _was it something somebody said?" she joked lightly.

Lorelei continued to look down, and it was obvious to the older couple that something had happened. Logan ran his thumb over the back of her hand, eventually saying, "The Sports Bar . . . ."

A cloud passed over Jim's face. "Deek and them? They rude to you? They run off at the mouth a little too much, sometimes."

"There's something else, isn't there?" Kathy asked gently.

Lorelei gulped, and wondered what else about them Kathy had heard from her sister. "Well, um, the thing is, besides being newcomers, we're, um . . . ."

"Mutants," prompted Rod. He scratched the thin hair on his head. "Isn't that why you're here_ - _you know that most of the town is, too, right? Not Kathy or Jim, here, but didn't my niece Linda tell you that?"

Lorelei breathed a sigh of relief as the old man went on. "My mutation was the only reason I was able to live alone for so long when most geezers like me have to pack it in." He waited a beat as Logan and Lorelei leaned in, and explained, "Sharpshooter eyesight. I can still spot a ladybug on a leaf at fifty yards. Just can't keep me from tripping over my own damn boots in the dark on the way to the john, is all."

Lorelei smiled at this joke at his own expense. "Then I suppose it must be obvious to you that I- I am-," she stammered in shyness.

"Sexy?" supplied Jim. He, Kathy, and Rod laughed at this racy interjection, and Lorelei joined in after a moment. Logan did not.

"Well, those men you mentioned, they_ - _ah, came on a little strong this afternoon," said Lorelei, shooting a glance at Logan's stony expression.

"And Jimmy here is the jealous type, I take it?" asked Jim, indicating Logan with a twinkle. Lorelei caught the older man's eye and widened her own, shaking her head at him to let him know that 'Jimmy' did not like being teased.

Jim cleared his throat of his lighthearted banter, and continued. "In all seriousness, I'm really disappointed to hear that they were giving you a bad time. Deek's owned that little bar next door to us and been a good neighbor for the last five years, and this is a close-knit town_ - _we all know each other, we're almost like family. I would hate for you to leave so soon after you got here because you didn't feel welcome. You think that maybe I could talk to them, get them to shape up and make amends?"

Lorelei started to respond, but Logan got there first. "Hypno can't get near her."

Kathy pursed her mouth. "Yes, he's a bit of a lady-killer."

Jim persisted, "James, you seem like you'd probably prefer to handle this man-to-man. Tomorrow's Friday, and each week everyone does a pot-luck supper down at the Grange, it's been our all-purpose recreation hall forever. Fridays are our time to catch up with folks, share news, give back borrowed gardening tools." He smiled. "A bit of our small town life. I was thinking that you might like to see the Friday Night Grange tomorrow, have some fun, and I could make an introduction to you with Deek; get a chance to clear the air."

Lorelei stayed quiet while Logan contemplated this for a long moment. "I'll think about it," he said. "But we've had a long day and we're pretty tired."

"Thank you so much for dinner," said Lorelei softly. "It was nice of you to invite us here_ - _a home-cooked meal was just what we needed."

They said their good-byes, and got in the car to head back to 'Lavender.'

Back in the house, Kathy returned to the dining table and looked expectantly at Rod. "Did you know about this already?" the old man asked Jim quietly.

"Yes," said Jim, "and Deek said-"

"Call him," Rod interrupted. "And tell that little shit to get his ass over here. He has some damage control to do."


	10. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Deek rapped once on the door and came right in, trying to keep his expression neutral instead of defensive, which is how he was feeling. For a feral, he wasn't much in for the snapping and snarling, which was too bad, because those qualities might have come in handy for someone about to get his ass handed to him by an eighty-year-old man.

"I'm disappointed in you, Kid," came Rod's sharp voice, before Deek was even in the kitchen. "You may have blown it."

He couldn't help it, Deek tensed up his shoulders again, like a teenager about to be grounded. "Well, maybe if anyone told me _anything,"_ he defended, glaring at Kathy. He turned to Rod, knowing that he sounded like a kid tattling. "I didn't know who she was_ - _I had no idea a new female was arriving, otherwise I would have been there myself to meet her first thing, instead of letting Hypno welcome her with his eye-fuck mojo."

"Linda said _maybe," _Kathy responded, gritting her teeth at his crudeness. "She said that it looked pretty likely that they'd come here, but definitely not a sure thing. She didn't want to scare 'em away by offering to escort them."

"Why did they refer her to come here, anyway?" Deek asked. "I mean, despite the fact that she's so alluring, she's mated."

Kathy turned to Jim. "You didn't tell him?"

"No," Jim said. "And you need to be more careful_ - _you scared her before when you told her you knew." He jerked his head. "Tell him."

She hesitated, to deliberately intrigue Deek before her next statement: "She's _breeding."_

Deek opened his mouth in surprise, his subconscious supplying _Ah, that's what smelled so good_ while the rest of him processed this new information. A fertile female mutant meant that she was here for _him._ Finally. It felt like he'd been waiting forever: five years.

That was when Bill and Linda had found him. Running with his sister in a forest in Saskatchewan, Deek had wound up with a deep gouge in one thigh that was too much even for his accelerated healing ability, and it became infected and abscessed. When Bill and Linda came through the area, Bill had turned his hands onto the injury and healed it, leaving only a faint pink scar behind.

Afterward, they told him about where they lived and it sounded ideal. He'd had trouble fitting in everywhere, because he was too human to be completely feral, but too feral to ignore it and embrace his humanity. He had the heightened senses of sight, smell, hearing, and was quicker to heal than regular people, with disproportionate strength and speed for his size, and he could perceive that whole pheromone spectrum that was lost on humans. Plus, you know . . . _claws._ But he didn't have the furry limbs (although he could rock a beard, if he did say so, himself), or the pointy teeth_ - _not like his sister, who couldn't pass for human, and didn't want to, preferring to live in the forest. He could keep up with her on the run, but once she started taking down deer and eating the flesh raw, he had a hard time relating with her more feral instincts and base urges. But he stayed with her out of companionship as well as a bone-deep need to protect her.

His little sister had agreed to come along, though, when he begged her and told her he wanted them to move to the Island. Not only was this a place where mutants did not have to hide from the public at all, Bill and Linda had captured his interest by insisting they'd both find mates there. They'd be _encouraged_ to mate there: it was all part of a system that "Uncle Rod" had masterminded, years ago.

Convinced of the superiority of mutant genes, Rod founded the Island as a refuge, where his kind did not have to suffer the confinement of living in a human society, and could foster future mutant generations in privacy.

The only problem was that after a few decades, population numbers had dwindled because most mutants were sterile. The Island had some mutants with human mates, people who chose to live there either because they were relatives of mutants, or were merely appreciative of the mutant nature. But they were particularly short on childbearing mutant women, and even the human-mutant partnerships did not always produce children, with only a small, random percentage of that progeny over the years born mutant.

Faced with the reality that his haven might cease to exist within another generation, Rod had started sending out emissaries, who were tasked with the impossible mission of finding more fertile mutants_ - _females, especially_ - _for the Island. Bill and Linda were the most suitable for this. Their traveling from town to town helping people, like they had done for Deek, that was legitimate. But they also started to scope out these crossroads and mutant settlements for new residents to introduce to the Island. They found two in Deek and his sister Tanya.

It really only took a little wheedling for his sister accompany him to British Columbia, and Deek was eager for them to settle into their new home. He was less excited upon their arrival, when he found that his sister was actually the only reproductively-fertile female mutant of the women on the Island_ - _there was no frail for him to mate with. He knew there was a chance that mating with a human woman could yield a mutant child, since male mutants could carry the gene and pass it on, but he'd already been badly burned by that particular scenario in his youth.

_That_ had been the usual story: boy meets girl, boy and girl become high school sweethearts . . . then boy gets girl pregnant, boy discovers he is a mutant, girl terminates pregnancy to get creepy mutant spawn out of her body, boy gets run out of town. _Okay, maybe not everybody's usual story._ Deek vowed that he was going to do it right the next time; one day, he'd have a child with a mutant mate, someone who'd be glad to carry his creepy spawn. Deek was even willing to wait for the _right_ female mutant to relocate to the Island, since currently his only other possibility for a mate was Kelsey, the annoying fifteen-year-old daughter of Dan from the B&B, and obviously she wasn't of age yet.

But five years on the Island was a long time to be patient. Rod assured him that they'd find a female for him, but viable ones were rarer than gold, and even if Bill and Linda found one capable of bearing young, they'd have to convince her to want to move to the Island, without scaring her away with the "and we want you to come make lots of little mutant babies there" part of the sales pitch.

In the meantime, Deek had settled in and opened the bar, made himself part of the tiny community. After a while, Rod had tapped him to be his eventual successor as patriarch of the Island: he was smart, strong, and charismatic, with feral intuition, but not to a fault. Deek began sitting in on Rod's little conclaves with his right-hand advisors: his niece Kathy and her husband Jim, plus Linda and Bill when they were in town.

Normally, they let him in on everything, keeping him up to date on the recruiting efforts, and also on Kathy's attempts at matchmaking between the residents of the Island. They would never _force_ anyone to mate, obviously, but Kathy certainly encouraged, even guilt-tripped, the men and women who came of age to bond in pairs that made children likely. That's how Deek's sister Tanya had ended up breeding with Blaze, even though she didn't like him.

Shaking himself out of this self-reflective reverie, he addressed Kathy, annoyed. _"How_ could you not tell me that they'd found a fertile mutant female?"

"Because we didn't want you to get your hopes up," said Rod, "and because she's not yours, not yet. Not if you keep making immature mistakes, like you did with that stupid idiot."

Deek knew he was referring to Hypno. _Dammit, am I ever going to live that down?_ he wondered. The _one_ time he was invited to go out with Bill and Linda on a recruiting trip last fall, Deek had met Hypno at a bar, the tall and talkative mutant bragging about his ability and how successful it made him with women. Straight-up hypnosis was the way he did it, of course, and he just had to make sustained eye contact to get anyone, man or woman, to comply with whatever he wanted, although it only lasted a very short time out of his presence. Deek was dazzled by the idea of having such an ally, and brought Hypno back with him to the Island.

There, Hypno proved to be less than useless. He was sterile, and incapable of producing children, which suited him just fine as he worked his hypnotic way through all the human women living on the Island, earning himself enemies in the close-knit community since he didn't seem to care whether the ones he screwed were paired already or not.

"He'll come in handy some day, I swear," assured Deek, dying to hear more. "Seriously, this female, she's breeding? With that feral with the knives in his hands? Did Bill sense it or something? And _what_ is her scent?"

"He didn't sense it, apparently, she told them," said Kathy. "And the scent is part of her mutation: she makes projections to your senses that make her attractive, almost irresistible, and she enthralls the people around her so they feel blissful."

"Like Hypno?"

"No," Kathy said scornfully. "It's not mind-control, she can't help it; it's out there all the time."

"Mmm," evaluated Deek. _Nice quality to have in a mate._ He'd already felt some of what Kathy was talking about, in just those couple of minutes that he'd seen the woman in the Sports Bar, before her jerk husband came in to get her.

_Husband,_ he scoffed. What a lame human legal thing for a feral to impose on such a creature. He'd never ascribe to that kind of bullshit, when she was his. Deek felt his blood growing uncharacteristically hot, as thinking about this female stirred something deep within the animal part of his nature. He recollected the sweet scent of her, which had permeated his bar for hours afterward, and the shiny brown hair that curled around her shoulders, fantasizing about wrapping that hair in his fist and getting his tongue and teeth on her white neck as she writhed beneath him.

Exhaling with a _whuff!_, Deek turned his attention to Rod. "So what's your plan for the male? Kill him?" Although Deek didn't consider himself the bloodthirsty type, he was still a feral, and knew there'd be no getting his lovely future mate away from that beast, otherwise.

Rod looked pained by the stupidity of his question. "No. You want her to miscarry? We need all the pure mutant babies we can possibly get. We can't do anything that puts her at risk until the child is born."

Deek was disappointed. The thought of living with this beautiful female in his midst for months (_How many?_) and not having her sounded like torture.

"You need the all the time you can get, anyway," Jim interjected. "You boys really got off on the wrong foot with her_ - _she doesn't like you. It's going to take a lot of coaxing to turn her around, so that she'll come to you _after_ we get rid of him."

"Which I still say is a waste of a valuable fertile male," whined Kathy, looking at the ceiling. "He could sire more children with one of our humans."

"And I keep telling you," said Rod in a commanding tone. "That the woman has to be the priority. Pure mutant young will pay off more in the long run, and she may not breed with a new mate if her first one is still here.

"What you need to do now," the old man continued, "is concentrate on winning them over: get him to relax, and her to trust you. Otherwise they won't stay here. You need to apologize at the Grange tomorrow night, for starters, and keep that fucking Hypno under control."

"What's her name?"

"Lorelei_ - __Siren."_ Kathy patted Deek's arm. "Only about seven more months_ - _that's not so bad, right?"

Deek nodded. _Seven more months._


	11. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Logan awoke to the feeling of soft, thick hair brushing over his bare chest, and even softer lips pressing light kisses on his skin there. He lifted his head off the pillow to look at Lorelei, her wavy chestnut locks pooling down around her as she bent her face to him, kissing and then nuzzling her nose onto his breastbone. He laid his hand lightly on her head, which caused her to make a quiet _Mmm_ sound, but she didn't pause in her snuggling. He trailed his fingers down her back and tickled her ribcage, which made her giggle and roll off of him onto her side, propping herself up on one elbow.

He opened his mouth to speak, but there came a brisk knock on their lavender door. Lorelei hopped up, snagging one of the fluffy white robes that hung just inside the little bathroom. Cinching the sash around her waist, she opened the door a crack, then swung it wide to admit the woman outside. About fortyish, and human, she was bearing a large tray and a broad smile, which faltered when she saw Logan rise to a sitting position on the bed, the sheets pooling around his waist and exposing his muscular upper body.

"I- I brought you your breakfast," she recovered after a moment, gesturing to the array of muffins, bacon and eggs, and coffee accoutrements in her hands. Logan was amused by how flustered she was, but kept still not to rattle her further, as Lorelei accepted the heavy tray and laid it quickly on the table, hoping that their innkeeper would not notice the dotted line of dents they'd made yesterday on the wall behind. "Just let me know if you need anything else," the woman said as she departed, stealing one last glance at Logan, who was preparing to get out of bed.

Lorelei faced her husband, who looked innocently at the ceiling. "You think you're something pretty special, don't you?" she teased.

He flung the sheets back, swinging his feet off the bed to plant solidly on the ground before he approached her, completely naked, his body toned with power, yet graceful. "I don't know, you tell me," he replied confidently.

She wrapped her arms around him and used both hands to briefly squeeze his bottom. "Very nice, but I'm more interested in coffee right now," she said, her eyes dancing.

Logan clasped his hand to his heart, pretending to stagger: _"Ouch."_

She poured him a mug of black coffee and placed it in his hand, puckering her lips, which he kissed. He grabbed a handful of bacon and shoved it into his mouth, walking to the bathroom as he called out "gonna shower" in a garbled voice.

Exiting the steamy bathroom a few minutes later with a towel secured around his waist, he saw Lorelei curled on a chair at the dining table, her knees drawn up and feet tucked underneath her, avidly reading her 'Pregnancy' book with a muffin on a plate in front of her. He pushed the plate of eggs closer to her as he walked by to grab his duffel bag, his deep voice reminding "protein, Baby."

She picked up her fork to scoop some eggs into her mouth. "So here's what I've been thinking," said Logan out of the blue. "It's August now, and fall is going to bring cold weather with it pretty soon, this far north. I know you're nervous about the birth," here he jerked his head toward the book in her lap, "and you'd probably feel better if we were near a town when that happens. We could just stay in the old guy's house here until the baby comes. It will give us a little security to have a roof over our heads before freezing temperatures start, and you won't have to worry about being too isolated when you go into labor_ - _late spring. Hank McCoy said baby is due end of April or early May, so then after that we go ahead with our original plan, and I take you to Alberta to build us a cabin." He gave a sharp little nod at her. "What do you think?"

"I like it." She nodded back. "I think that sounds perfect . . . if you don't think the other ferals here will be a problem."

He shook his head. "After meeting that man_ - _Rod_ - _last night, he's clearly the leader around here, and everyone else defers to him. Those other two ferals are younger, so if he's the boss and they live here, they must submit to him, even if they act like they want trouble. But I'll feel them out tonight at that thing."

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Jim and Kathy had offered to pick them up in the evening on the way to the Grange, but Logan refused. He wanted his own vehicle there in case he needed to get Lorelei away in a hurry if she got surrounded or overwhelmed. They followed the directions (not that the tiny town had too many streets where they could get lost) and pulled into a bustling parking lot.

The Grange itself was a large, barn-like building, with double doors propped wide open in front. Inside, one wall was lined with tables covered in food, with a few smaller tables and folding chairs dotting the inside floor, though most people were eating standing up, clustered together chatting in little groups. In the corner, a dark-haired man was playing the guitar, and Lorelei recognized the woman from the B&B who'd brought them their breakfast, sitting next to him.

"Lorelei!" Kathy's voice rang out as they walked in the door. She walked over with Jim, holding her hands out, and Lorelei offered her a sweating carton of ice cream.

"You said it was pot luck," she said, her voice losing volume. "I, um, didn't know what to bring since we couldn't cook. This is silly, it's going to melt."

"No, this is very thoughtful of you," said Kathy. "There are some kids around who would love to help by eating this while it's still frozen." She walked away toward the table of food.

"So," said Jim, "have you had a chance to look around the town much? What did you two do all day?"

"Read," said Logan immediately, while Lorelei's face turned bright pink.

"Ah, how nice," replied Jim smoothly. "Listen, Deek, the one who owns the Sports Bar, wanted to get a chance to introduce himself properly to you. Would it be all right if I sent him over?" he ventured.

Logan nodded, keeping his arm around Lorelei as they watched Jim walk up to the man with the light brown beard they recognized from the previous day. The man detached himself from another group of people_ - _one of whom was Blaze, the redheaded guy from the bar_ - _and walked over.

He was smiling affably at the two of them and spoke as soon as he was near. "Welcome to the Island_ - _glad you came by tonight. I'm Dietrich Tragen, but you can call me Deek." He stuck out his hand to the pair.

Logan took his hand. "James Logan." He tightened his grip significantly, and added, "Wolverine."

Deek made an effort not to show a change in expression as Logan released his hand, even though it had felt more like shaking with a metal vise than a human appendage. He offered his hand to the woman, but she just said, "Lorelei," and nodded at him, keeping her hands at her sides. _So clearly, I don't get to touch her, _thought Deek._ She's keeping her distance._

He could feel a cozy warmth creeping into his consciousness, and knew that this must be that sense projection mutation of Lorelei's that Kathy had told him about. Trying to be subtle, Deek inhaled her sweet smell, politely saying, "It's nice to meet . . ."

He paused distractedly mid-sentence, because he had just caught another scent coming from her body: the Wolverine's seed, very fresh.

Logan saw the flicker of comprehension in his eyes and moved a little closer to Lorelei, giving him a look that said _that's right__ - _she's mine.

". . . you," Deek finished lamely. He smiled, trying to look cheerful. _He's too tall for her, _he thought. "Listen, I want to apologize for intimidating you yesterday."

"You weren't intimidating," said Logan levelly.

"Okay," continued Deek, undaunted. "Then I apologize for having bad manners. You are newcomers here, and we should have made you feel at home, but we fell way short of that. I guess we get so few visitors, we forgot how to be polite," he joked, "but it won't happen again."

"Thanks," said Lorelei simply. She knew that Logan would want to talk to the guy alone, so she detached herself from his grasp, pressing his hand briefly with hers before she turned away. "I'm going to go get some food."

Deek watched her walk away, then turned his head to see that Logan was watching _him_ watch _her. Whoops._

"Hypno is an asshole," Deek blurted out suddenly. Logan kept staring at him with furrowed dark brows. "Seriously, we just all ignore him_ - _his sense of humor has a lot to be desired. But he won't bother her again. He's not here tonight," he finished.

Logan leaned a little closer to the smaller man, taking an obvious whiff of the air between them to let Deek know that he could smell coming off of him the heady mixture of apprehension, lust, and lies.

"What are you playing at, bub?" asked the Wolverine quietly.

Deek tried to stand up a little straighter, so he didn't feel so much like he was looking up to meet Logan's eyes. "Playing at nothing. Just want you to feel welcome here." _And I'm going to steal your mate._

Logan narrowed his eyes at Deek, then turned to walk away. As he did so, Deek noticed three blades disappearing up into the back of his hand, his skin healing instantly over them once they were sheathed.

Deek had not heard when they came out.

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Examining the groaning table of food, Lorelei picked up a plate and filled it, grabbing a napkin before she turned and scanned the room, looking for a place to sit. A woman was sitting in a chair nearby with an empty seat beside her, a finished dinner plate in her lap. Lorelei made her way to the empty chair, noticing as she did so that the woman was wearing a somewhat sullen expression, staring into the distance. Her short, light brown hair was tucked behind her ears, which came to triangular points at the top. Her eyes were set in slanted little slits on her face, and her nose was small, flat, and feline.

The woman glanced at Lorelei as she sat down in the chair beside her. "Hi," said Lorelei. The woman just inclined her head.

Lorelei tried again. "I'm Lorelei."

"I know," said the woman, with a slightly exasperated edge in her voice. Lorelei looked at her, surprised, and the woman rolled her eyes a little. "New people are huge news around here since we hardly ever have them. Everybody knows who you are." She seemed to think better of her tone, and offered, "I'm Tanya."

"Nice to meet you." Lorelei chewed thoughtfully in silence for a moment, then the woman spoke again.

"Could you stop it?"

Lorelei started. "Stop what?"

Tanya waved her hand vaguely around her head. "All this_ - _whatever you're pushing into my mind that feels like hot chocolate and marshmallows and hugs from grandma."

Lorelei blushed. "I'm sorry, I can't," she replied in a quiet voice, hitching her chair a foot farther away from Tanya's. "It's just out there_ - _I can't control it. I can move to a different seat."

The woman shrugged. "It's not that big of a deal."

"If- if you have a healing factor, that might help the feeling fade," Lorelei mentioned tentatively, since the woman was obviously a feral, and most ferals had at least a little healing ability, in her experience."My husband's ability pretty much blocks my projections entirely." She looked up, at where Logan was just finishing his conversation with Deek.

The woman followed her gaze. "That's him? He's . . . big." She paused before adding, "Deek's my brother."

"Oh?" Lorelei exhaled. The feline features and long limbs were nothing like Deek's compact frame.

Tanya smiled ruefully. "Yeah, I know: we look nothing alike. I'm unique this way in my family_ - _even my own son doesn't look like me."

Lorelei heard this with interest. "You have a son?"

"Yeah, he's two." Tanya turned slightly, looking over to where a red-haired toddler sat on the floor, playing with two older children. "Looks exactly like his sire."

Lorelei saw the same shade of red hair across the room, on the man called Blaze. "Blaze is your husband?"

"Mate," Tanya corrected her, giving her a weird look.

Lorelei blushed in embarrassment. "Oh," she said, then continued timidly, "Your son-is he a mutant, too? I just_ - _sorry, I don't mean to pry_ - _but I'm pregnant, and I don't know any other mutants with children. I wasn't sure if my baby would be a mutant, too."

Tanya looked sharply at her upon hearing her news, her mouth slightly open in shock. She composed herself after a moment, and gave Lorelei a small, reassuring smile. "With that great big feral for a father? Yes, your baby will be a mutant, all right. My son is, too_ - _he's just too little to have any powers yet."

"He was born here?"

"Yeah," confirmed Tanya. "Born here, live here, forever. . . ." She trailed off quietly, glancing at Blaze and then clenching her jaw.

Lorelei noticed, but said nothing. "Is there a doctor here? Who delivers babies?"

"Amy. She's a doula_ - _that's the closest we've got." Tanya stood up, crumpling her napkin in her hand. "Hey, I'll see ya." She walked away, depositing her plate before stooping to pick up her son, kissing the top of his fiery head.

"Lor?" She looked up to see Logan standing above her. "I saw Rod, told him we'd stay at his place this winter. He asked us to swing by tomorrow and pick him up, then he'll direct us out there. You ready to go?" He rubbed his hand on her shoulder.

She rose, nodding, and he kissed her before taking the plate out of her hands and setting it on the nearby table. Wrapping an arm around her waist, he led her out the double doors. She could feel eyes on her back and looked behind her to see that Tanya was standing there staring at them, her expression unreadable.


	12. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Logan took in the windswept landscape, feeling a thrill of excitement. He and Lorelei had just climbed out of their car, Rod exiting a little more slowly, and they shaded their eyes from the bright sun to look at the little cabin, set amidst tall, waving grasses, with huge trees in the distance. Logan felt a grin split his face as he wrapped an arm around Lorelei_ - _he loved having the chance to live so close to nature, with so much openness and yet so much privacy. The wind whistled in their ears, drowning out the rushing sound of water in a nearby creek.

Rod could sense his appreciation, and gestured to the domicile. "Home sweet home," he intoned. "C'mon inside so that I can show you around." He chuckled to himself, and once he'd pushed open the door Lorelei and Logan got his little joke: the cabin was one cozy, square room. On the wall opposite the front door was a woodstove with chimney pipe extending through the ceiling, a counter next to it neatly organized with several knives and utensils and supporting a big grey stoneware cistern. A few cabinets completed the "kitchen," and to the right was a small table and two chairs. Finally, on the left side of the door, a sturdy-looking double bedframe displayed an empty mattress and two pillows.

"The well is out back," Rod informed them. "It's a pump-takes some muscle to get it going, but that shouldn't be a problem." He looked Logan's broad shoulders. "And the necessary right over there," he pointed.

"Necessary?" asked Lorelei.

"Outhouse," Logan murmured to her. "Is _that_ going to be a problem, Baby?"

She shrugged. "Not as long as there's regular toilet paper."

Rod chuckled again. "No fancy indoor plumbing, here. You fill the cistern every other day or so with water for drinking and cooking."

"But where do you bathe?" Lorelei asked, her brow furrowed as she took in the tiny cabin's lack of a bathroom.

Jerking a thumb over his shoulder, Rod responded, "River," the clear water looking entirely frigid, even from far away.

Lorelei looked at Logan with raised eyebrows, getting goosebumps just from looking at the flowing creek. He hugged her, laughing, and kissed the top of her head. "I'll enclose you a little outdoor shower, Lor, so you can use warm water."

"There's no phone or electricity, either," Rod added, "so I generally use these solar lanterns, although during the summer nights it stays light so late you don't need them. There's a little gas heater in one of the cabinets in case of emergencies, but the woodstove is the easiest way to heat the place when it's cold. So . . . what do you think?"

Logan looked at Lorelei, hopeful that the primitive attributes of the cabin had not scared her off. She smiled, looking satisfied. "Let's move in right now."

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Tanya looked up when her front door creaked, smiling when she saw her older brother coming in. "Hey, Teddy Bear," she greeted him, using her childhood nickname for him, a reference to the ursine qualities of his feral nature.

"Hi_ - _heyyy, little guy!" Deek dropped to his knees to accept a hug from his nephew, who began immediately tugging his uncle down to climb onto his back and play 'Bear Cub.'

"Deek, you want lunch?" asked Tanya, heading into the kitchen.

"Nah, I can't stay too long. So . . . I saw you talking to that new female last night. Lorelei."

Tanya pursed her lips. "Yeah," she said, staring at her brother, who was suddenly too absorbed in the toddler to catch her eye.

"She's pretty great."

Tanya snorted. "Sure, if you like 'em sweet. I felt like I was coming down off of a sugar high from her mutation."

Deek gave a little smile at this, looking thoughtful. "Yep. Listen, I was wondering if you could be nice to her. Get to know her, since she's new and all."

Tanya put her hands on her hips. "Don't think I don't know what you're thinking, _Dietrich._ It's hopeless with her. She's wild about her mate, anyone can see that. And he's huge_ - _I love you, but you couldn't challenge him."

He nodded, a knowing look on his face. "All the same . . . she could probably use a friend. Someone to talk to. Give support if she needs it. That kind of thing."

Tanya scented him, her eyes full of surprise at the tendrils of manipulation wafting off of him. "Deek," she started, her voice quieter. "You're not- you're not thinking of doing something stupid, are you? I know you want young of your own, but you can't be so impatient that you'd kill-"

"Gotta go," Deek interrupted, tousling the little boy's hair. "I'll see you two later." He was out the door in an instant, Tanya watching him leave with a pit in her stomach.

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**_Ten Weeks Later_**

Logan was pretty sure there wasn't anything more perfect than lying in bed post-coital with his naked wife, her dewy skin smelling of sex and _him,_ in a tiny cabin with no nearby neighbors. He ran his hand over her stomach, which was now just slightly rounded from their growing child, and kissed her temple, sighing with happiness.

"You want breakfast, Baby?" she asked him. "I have to go eat." Her appetite had come on, all of a sudden, in the last few days_ - _it was as if she couldn't get full.

"I'll get it for you," he insisted, displacing her from his chest to jump out of bed and grab his jeans. Sufficiently clothed, he darted out the front door to grab a few pieces of firewood from the pile just outside. Lorelei remained curled up in the sheets, watching the play of muscles and tendons beneath the skin of her husband's bare upper body as he swept over to the woodstove, lit a fire, and put a cast-iron pan on the stovetop to heat up.

"Whew!" he said, rubbing each bare foot in turn on the backs of his calves. "The ground is cold. We'll probably start seeing freezing nights soon, maybe by the end of October. I'm going to have to split some more wood, so that it has time to dry before we need it."

"Mmm," Lorelei was practically purring, stretching her arms and legs in the warm spot on the bed he'd recently vacated, eyes closed. He admired her for a moment, but then, with a glimmer in his eye, he crept over to the side of the bed, his silent footsteps catlike as he reached for the end of the sheet. Jerking it off of her suddenly, he lunged and put his cold hands on her ribs, directly underneath her breasts.

Laughing at the high-pitched yelp she made, he rolled onto his back next to her as she grabbed a pillow to beat him with. He captured both of her wrists with one hand and used the other arm to yank her against him, kissing her breathless, before he gently bit her bottom lip and leapt away.

After they demolished a panful of scrambled eggs, Logan pumped water for the kitchen cistern, filling an extra pot that Lorelei put on the stove to heat dishwashing water. He looked through the toolbox that he'd borrowed from Jim, locating the hatchet and checking its sharpness before heading outside to chop firewood.

For the past couple months, he spent most of his days absorbed in repair work on the cabin: patching the roof, applying weatherstripping to the windows and doors, and insulating the ancient walls in preparation for winter's chill. He loved exerting his strength on such fulfilling tasks, watching these physical accomplishments mount into a comfortable life for him and Lorelei, and he found the solitude of labor to be relaxing and meditative.

They'd both settled nicely into the peaceful community of the Island. Kathy made regular appearances at the cabin, always seeming to bring along some little treat for Lorelei's burgeoning appetite, like homemade bread or a bar of dark chocolate. Logan was stopping in at their hardware store every other day, it seemed, for supplies for Rod's renovations, and between these trips and Kathy's visits, the newlyweds heard about all the goings-on in town.

The small city and proximity of the businesses meant that they ran into Deek frequently, too. After their awkward meeting at the Grange, Deek was polite, but kept his distance, always nodding and waving at them cordially when he saw them around, but not engaging them in conversation.

Blaze was a regular fixture at the bar next to the hardware store, his red eyes and stoic demeanor fading into the background of their occasional brief interactions with Deek, but Hypno was never around. Thus, true to Deek's word, Hypno didn't bother Lorelei, and was so absent from the bar and the Grange that they might have thought he left the Island, save for the presence of his car next to Deek's in the parking area, now and then.

Making a few appearances at the Grange, Logan and Lorelei had the chance to meet Dan, the B&B proprietor who played his guitar for everyone most Fridays, and Amy, the doula and schoolteacher, plus an assortment of other kind residents, both human and mutant alike. Lorelei tried hard to swallow her shyness, because the close-knit society of the Island meant that everyone knew everyone else's business, including her budding pregnancy.

Since these people all knew how rare it was to have a full-mutant child, Lorelei was doted upon and admired as a goddess, and at the social scene of the Grange, everyone wanted an opportunity to ask her how she was feeling, or whether she had a guess about boy or girl. Sitting flush against Logan, whose impassive countenance was a helpful deterrent for some of their nosy neighbors, Lorelei would quietly respond to all the well-wishes amidst her blushes, until she telegraphed to Logan that she'd had enough attention and wanted to leave.

Just when they felt like they were fitting in with the rest of the population, Bill and Linda returned from their travels, greeting Logan and Lorelei like long-lost kin and assuring them how thrilled they were that the two were living on the Island. Bill and Linda's arrival for the winter was a big deal, as if they were minor celebrities, so their companionship with Logan and Lorelei made the two young lovers even more accepted as part of the crowd.

The weeks slipped by into a beautiful Indian summer, with the leaves changing to the brilliant fiery hues of fall, and the days gradually growing shorter and colder, as Logan had observed with his freezing fingers on Lorelei's torso. He spent the better part of that day swinging his hatchet, chopping and splitting logs to stack and cover in preparation for the winter months ahead. The afternoon was sunny and cool, but after working for several hours he stripped off his shirt and used it to wipe the sweat out of his eyes and off his neck, tossing it aside to chug water and return to his task.

Lorelei leaned in the doorway, holding a bowl of late plums that she'd picked from the wild, overgrown tree to one side of their gravelly driveway. She bit into the purple skin of one, catching its juice with her tongue before it could run down her wrist, and chewed the sweet flesh. She made an incoherent sound around her bite, catching Logan's attention to offer him one of the fruits, and he held up his hands so she could toss him one.

"Thanks," he replied, popping the whole thing into his mouth at once, juice running down his chin that he wiped at with the back of his hand.

"Logan, I've been wondering," she said hesitantly. "Should I get a job?"

"No," Logan answered immediately, his eyes on his swing of the hatchet. "I like you right where you are: barefoot and pregnant and giving me food."

She threw a plum pit at him in retaliation, even though this observation of her was accurate_ - _she _was_ barefoot, and stood there wearing one of Logan's t-shirts and nothing else.

He sunk the blade of the hatchet deep into the log before him and turned to her, serious this time. "What are you thinking about, Baby?"

"I was thinking about money," she admitted. "I just know we're trying to keep as much of our savings intact as we can, for when we are ready to leave and build our own cabin. But . . . " she dragged out, "I don't fit into most of my clothes now." She pressed the fabric of his shirt to her front to illustrate this, outlining the small swell of her belly below her lush breasts. He felt his heart pound at the sight of her beauty, but told himself to focus on what she was saying.

"Love, of course you should go get more clothes if you need them. Is that why you're wearing my shirt today? I thought you were just being cute."

"Yeah, my stretchy pants are wet," Lorelei pointed to their clothesline, where a single pair of black yoga pants jostled for space with shirts and socks, drying in the sun.

"Lor, it's smart to think about our savings," said Logan, walking closer to her. "We want to be able to take care of the little one," he added, rubbing the front of her shirt. "But if we're leaving in a few months after the baby's here, that limits your work options, and I just don't think you need to. Let me take care of you_ - _that's what husbands do, right?"

"Yes." She leaned forward from her perch on the step above him, and kissed his sweaty forehead. "I just want to feel like I'm contributing."

"Hey," he said, to get her attention. He hooked both of his hands around the backs of her bare thighs, his dusty, grimy skin at odds with her pale silkiness. "You give me a lot." He bent his head and kissed her stomach, squeezing her legs with his hands at the same time. "A lot."

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Splitting wood was backbreaking work, even for someone strong with a healing factor, and by the end of the day Logan was spent. He staggered into the cabin, kicking off his boots, and grabbed four pieces of bread to shove in his mouth in lieu of dinner, collapsing on their bed face-down in just his jeans.

"Poor baby," Lorelei sympathized. "Want me to rub your back?"

"Unngh," grunted Logan, which she took to mean yes. She knelt beside him on the bed, running her fingers through his hair and scratching his scalp, which made him sigh with contentment. Putting her hands on his back, she circled her fists, digging in to the tight spots with her knuckles. She leaned into her palms, compressing and stretching him to relieve the aching knots.

"You're stronger than you look," mumbled Logan, moaning appreciatively about his massage. She gripped the back of his neck, pushing her thumbs into the tender muscles at the base of his skull. Continuing her ministrations from her perch on the bed, legs tucked up underneath her, she realized after awhile that Logan had fallen asleep, so exhausted that his mouth was hanging open and he was drooling a little.

Applying one extra little pat on his bottom, she carefully got up from the bed and opened the front door, closing it behind her quietly and stepping outside to admire the last few minutes of the fall sunset, stunning colors which painted the sky in pink, purple, gold, and silver.

"Siren."

She jumped, hearing a voice behind her, and whirled around to see Deek standing there. She put her hand to her chest, which reminded her that she was only wearing a t-shirt that barely covered her ass, and her hands flew to the hem of the shirt, tugging it downward.

He gave her a friendly smile, and before she could speak he said, "Um, hi, Lorelei."

"What are you doing here?"

Deek looked a little taken aback by her bluntness, but kept his grin intact. "Just looking at the sunset, the same as you."

She eyed him warily, and said, "I should go inside to Logan."

He laughed a little, joking, "What is this, 1891? Are you not allowed to talk to people without your husband there?" He took a step closer_ - _he could smell a hint of her delectable scent, and it made him want more.

She took a step back, and he stopped, seeing how guarded she was.

"Your name is pretty," he commented. "You know it's German . . . like mine."

She nodded once. "Good night." She turned and whisked up the front step, slipping through the door and bolting it shut. She breathed out slowly, giving a little shiver, then went over to the bed, lying down next to Logan and snuggling into his warm side. He rolled over, wrapping an arm around her in his sleep, and she moved her head next to his.

Just before she drifted off, it occurred to her that their driveway leading to the road was at the front of the house. Deek had come from _behind_ the house.

_Why was he watching us?_ her subconscious inquired.


	13. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Sunlight slanted in the window, searing through Lorelei's closed eyelids and making her groan. Lifting her head off the pillow, she squinted into the brightness and found that she was alone in bed.

Logan had awakened in the night and made love to her, his arms holding her tight against his body while his mouth left hot, dreamy kisses on her neck. They drifted back to sleep afterward, limbs entangled, and when she woke in the morning she might have thought that she imagined it all, except for the fact that she was now naked.

Pulling on a shirt and her now-dry stretchy pants, she walked outside to find that Logan was in the shower stall. It was a little wooden cubicle attached to the side of the house, built over wooden slats with a high shelf running along one side. When they wanted to clean off, they'd heat water over the stove, mixing it with cold river water in a big bucket, and dump cupfuls over themselves in the stall, then lather up and rinse off in the same way. It wasn't luxurious, but it did the job of removing the sweat and dirt from a day of chopping wood.

Lorelei eased open the wooden door, looking approvingly at the sight of a dripping, soapy Wolverine. "Hey Baby," he said, scrubbing his fingers through his hair. "Did you want to join me?"

"Maybe later," she winked. "I'm going to head into town - we're running low on a few things, I want to get new pants, and I'm going to say hello to Kathy and Linda."

"Wait a minute and I'll take you, Sweet. I don't want you going all alone."

"Logan," she said, hearing a little frustration creep into her voice. "You don't have to do everything for me. I have a doctorate in Molecular Neuroscience, you know_ - _I'm actually pretty capable."

Logan drenched his head. Lorelei was so rarely sarcastic, it really caught his attention. "Okay," he said finally, reaching for his towel. "I'll back off. You two just take care." He kissed his fingertips and pressed them to her belly.

She caught his hand, bringing the two fingers up to her lips. "We will - back later."

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Lorelei parked the car in a central location, near the junction of two streets that made up the tiny business district of the Island. From there, she walked into the small, all-purpose mercantile, a canvas bag in her hand, to look for clothing and take care of their grocery list. Once finished, she paid the young male clerk, who was not at all subtle as he kept deliberately touching her skin while handing her change, and Lorelei heard the front door open and turned to see Tanya and her son.

They'd only run into one another a few times during Lorelei's tenure on the Island, and Tanya had always seemed stiff and standoffish. So it was surprising when she approached Lorelei, the little boy in her arms, and said, "Hi there."

"Hi," Lorelei replied quickly. She smiled at the little boy, whose eyes were a strange mixture of the red of his father's and a silvery-grey. He started to wiggle, and Tanya put him back down, reassuring, "yes, yes, we are getting your ice cream."

As the clerk moved over behind another counter to grab a cone for the little one, Tanya spoke hesitantly. "You want to walk with us? I was going to get him his treat and go down to the shore to let him play."

Lorelei tried to hide her amazement. "Sure," she said. Although Kathy, and now Linda, extended regular social invitations to her, she'd missed the companionship of someone her own age, and felt a small glow at this interaction from Tanya. She stepped outside to put her bag in the car, then met Tanya on the sidewalk with her son, whose ice cream was already starting to drip.

"So . . . how long have you lived here?" Lorelei began, falling into step beside her.

"Five years," said Tanya. "My brother and I lived in Saskatchewan before then, just the two of us. But he got hurt badly_ - _I was actually really worried about him, until we heard about Bill from some other mutants, and met up with him to heal Deek." Her brow was slightly furrowed at the memory. "Deek was crazy to move here after that. He really wanted . . . a life. Like a human life, with a family and a house and everything, not to live in the forest any more. He had spent so long taking care of me because I'm younger, I wanted to give him something back, so I said we could move here." She clammed up suddenly, realizing how much she was talking about herself.

Lorelei processed this silently. "Looks like you got something wonderful out of it," she commented, gesturing at the little boy. "What's his name?"

"Spark," Tanya said, smiling at her son when he perked up at hearing his name. "Yeah, it's worth having to stay here to have him."

"Having to stay here?" Lorelei repeated.

Tanya sighed, wrestling with her thoughts for a moment, then spoke again. "When we first came here, I thought that once Deek found a mate, I'd leave. He would be busy raising his young, and I'd be free to go back to the woods. But right away, they went and found Blaze for me, and he took me as his mate."

Lorelei was floored by the detached way Tanya described her pairing, and in her shock she blurted, "You don't love him?"

Tanya gave her a condescending look, and Lorelei flushed, looking away. "Genetics doesn't leave room for love," Tanya informed her. "He was my best match, is all. And I'm stuck now." Lorelei raised her eyebrows, questioning. "Blaze would never let me leave with his son, and I won't go without Spark. So we stay here."

Lorelei felt sad for the woman at hearing her piteous story. "I'm sorry," she said finally.

Tanya flared at this display of sympathy, her cat eyes slanting even more as she narrowed them at Lorelei. "Don't you feel sorry for me," she hissed. "Not everyone looks for love, on top of a mate who marks her as his and sires her young. Warming a male's bed for the sake of your heart is a human concept, and if we let that guide us then eventually they'll be none of us left. I do what is right by my kind." With that final, cold statement, Tanya grabbed Spark's hand and surged forward, leaving Lorelei behind, disconcerted by her anger.

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Lorelei returned home to Logan that afternoon, still feeling distracted and dejected by Tanya's outburst. He greeted her as she pulled up, his face falling as he saw how wan she looked. "Baby, what's wrong?"

"I'm not feeling well," said Lorelei, suddenly realizing that this was true. She had been thinking so hard about Tanya, she hadn't registered her pounding headache, or the fact that her skin felt flushed, chilly, and sensitive all at the same time. "I think it might be the flu_ - _I'm going to go lie down."

Logan gave her a quick hug and kissed her forehead before she climbed the few stairs to the cabin's door, looking completely wiped out.

She stepped out of her pants and fell deeply asleep, curled under the warm quilts of their bed, and didn't hear Logan when he came back inside to check on her. Stroking her hair, he grabbed a pencil and left her a note telling her that he was going to the hardware store, and would return soon.

Lorelei's fever escalated slightly, making her so hot she had to kick off all the covers in her sleep. Deep in her unconscious state, she didn't register the sound of a vehicle approaching up their gravel driveway, or the light tap on the door.

Deek waited outside, realizing that it looked like no one was home. He'd run into Tanya a little while earlier, and she grudgingly told him about the conversation she'd had with Lorelei. Knowing that his sister's temper was pretty frightening when she had her claws out, he wanted to find Lorelei to apologize and make sure she wasn't offended by Tanya's aggression.

Knocking a little louder, he tried the door and found it unlocked. He cracked it open, calling "Lorelei?" into the quiet room. The smell of sex hit him in the face, it permeated the whole cabin, and he gritted his teeth with jealousy. He scanned the interior of the cabin and spotted Lorelei on the bed, lying on her side.

Deek started, then realized after a moment that she was asleep, and he was drawn into the room by the attraction of her mutant ability, which he could feel caressing his mind. He saw now that she had two bright, feverish spots on her cheeks, which explained why she had flung off all the covers, leaving her clad in only a t-shirt and black panties. Deek swallowed, watching her.

Lorelei sighed in her sleep, her breath curling into the room and hitting him harder with her sweet scent, and he reflexively stepped a little closer to her. She parted her mouth, her lips dry, and Deek reluctantly tore his eyes from her to look around the room for some water. Locating the water cistern, he grabbed a cup from beside it_ - _dislodging Logan's note, which fluttered to the floor. He filled the glass halfway with water, carrying it back to the bed.

It took only a little hesitation on his part to decide to sit on the edge of the bed and lean over her, sliding his hand behind her neck to support her head and lift it slightly, bringing the cup to her lips. It was the first time his hand had ever touched her bare skin, and she bloomed with warmth in his palm, a heat that he was certain was not only from her illness, and he felt a slight tingle running all the way from the tips of his fingers to his shoulder. She sipped at the water automatically without waking, and he reluctantly lowered her head once again, fingering her silky hair as he withdrew his hand.

He rose, setting the cup on a small table beside the bed, and should have turned to leave. Pausing, he took one last look at her body, all bare legs and soft curves and white skin, and he leaned back over her. Inching forward, he lowered his head and touched his lips to hers.

_Wow._

Deek had known that her sensory projections could affect all five of someone's senses, and he'd been extremely curious about it, thus far having only been able to experience the sight, smell, and sound of her. These three alone were so enticing that Deek had wondered if the remaining two connections_ - _touch and taste_ - _could really be any more blissful. By kissing her, he had his answer.

It was like having someone rub his shoulders, feed him chocolate, and give him a blowjob all at the same time. The wonderful tingle he'd felt in his fingers at touching her now spread all over him, racing through his limbs and straight to his groin, where he could feel himself growing hard. Breaking off the kiss, he panted in amazement, taking a clumsy step away from her and praying she would not wake up. When she remained motionless, he walked quickly to the door, heart pounding, closed it softly and drove away.

_Shit, _he thought._ The Wolverine is going to kill me._


	14. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Logan threw open the door to the cabin, startling Lorelei, who was sitting cross-legged on the bed, eating crackers and holding a cup of water. "Who was here?" he demanded, without preamble, once he saw that she was all right.

"What?" she responded, taking a drink.

"Who was here?" he repeated. "While I was gone."

"I didn't know you were gone - I was sleeping and I just woke up. I thought you were outside. Someone was here?"

"Yes. I smelled a car and a male outside." Logan looked around, and snarled when he saw her state of undress. "I smell him in here, too."

Her head was still foggy, although the nap had made her feel much better. She held up the cup. "Did you leave me this water?"

"No," said Logan, still scanning and sniffing the room. He halted, heading for the bed, and climbed onto the mattress, slinking toward her on all fours. She stilled, not certain what he was doing, and he tilted his head, running his nose up the side of her neck, over her ear and hair. "He touched you," Logan noted, his voice low and dangerous. His nose brushed over her mouth, and his claws shot out. "He's a dead man."

"Logan!" she cried as he leapt off the bed, clearly about to tear out of the house and complete this assassination _right now._ "Wait! No! You can't kill someone." She got out of bed, but her legs were still wobbly from her long afternoon nap, and Logan sheathed his claws, rushing over to put his arms around her and steady her. She latched onto him, relieved that she'd caught him. "Please, James, just hang on, calm down."

Logan clenched his jaw. "I will NOT fucking calm down. A man came here while I was away, entered _my_ house, and touched _my_ wife."

Lorelei threw her arms around his neck, looking troubled. "I understand, Logan, and it scares me, too. Just please, please don't kill anyone. I can't lose you." She laid her head on his chest.

He held her a moment, trying to regulate his breathing, and knowing that she did not merely mean that she didn't want him to wind up incarcerated, but also that he would have allowed himself to be overcome by his Wolverine. He squeezed her tightly, sitting back down onto the bed with her straddling his lap, facing him. She sighed with relief.

"I think it was Deek," Logan said, smelling her again. "I'm not going to kill him. But I am going to beat the shit out of him."

"Don't go," Lorelei begged, wrapping her legs around him.

"I'm not going to go now; it's late, and I'm not leaving you alone again. Besides," he added, "I need to get his scent off you."

Lorelei kissed him hard as he twisted and moved her back onto the mattress, yanking off her panties and clawing at his own jeans to shove them down. He reached his fingers between her legs to part her for him, entering her gently but deeply. He laid on top of her, metal skeleton heavy and unyielding, and he thrust upward into her sharply, rocking her with the force of his possession.

"You're mine," he growled softly, stilling with the full length of him inside her. "No one else can have you. _Mine." _She ran her hand over his hair and down his back, holding him tightly to her body; she knew he was not talking to her. But even still, she put her mouth close to his ear to whisper:_ "Yours."_

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"You okay, Love?" Logan checked on his exhausted wife, who was lying in his arms completely shattered by a night of endless sex, but no longer smelling of strange male.

"Mmm-hmm," she murmured, and yawned. "Wow, it's almost morning."

Logan looked at the window, where there was a definite light of dawn peeking through. "You must be so tired_ - _are you still feeling sick, Baby?"

"No, it's passed," said Lorelei. "I think it was all the . . . exercise."

"Damn straight," said Logan, kissing her.

"I want to shower," Lorelei commented. "I didn't get a chance to wash off yesterday because of my nap."

Recalling how someone_ - _most likely Deek_ - _had been here touching her while she was sleeping, Logan tensed, but he told himself to relax so that he didn't alarm her. "I'll walk down to the river for some water."

"Thank you." Her voice was slightly garbled around another large yawn.

Logan threw on his jeans and a sweatshirt, since the morning felt cold even from inside their cabin. Stepping into his boots, he grabbed the bucket and headed out into the early morning mist to the river.

Although the running water spanned a narrow space, little more than a trickling creek in some place, there was a five or six foot drop from the level ground down to the silt that lined the riverbed, making a small gorge out behind the property near the trees. As Logan approached the water, he smelled something strange on the air and stopped.

Besides people_ - _mutants, actually_ - _he could smell a metallic scent, something like steel and sharpness and . . . bullets. He scanned the thickly forested land on the other side of the steep river ditch, then caught a glimpse of something moving.

Hypno emerged from these woods, a shotgun in his hand, and Blaze was not far behind him, wearing a black watchcap over his flaming hair, which highlighted his foxlike features.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Logan asked, his voice even.

"Nice to see you, too," Hypno barked sarcastically. He paused, as if he was going to keep Logan in suspense, and then rolled his eyes. "There's a coyote that keeps eating Amy's chickens at night. We're looking for it." He hefted the firearm.

_Well, that explains the gun, at least, _thought Logan. Blaze was not carrying a weapon, since he likely had the same sharp claws that most ferals had, though Logan had never seen him extend them.

Hypno suddenly broke out in a wide smile, looking just beyond Logan, who whipped his head around to see Lorelei approaching him. She stopped suddenly, having finally noticed the other two men in the distance.

"Lorelei, go back into the house," called Logan.

"Now why should she do that, _Wolverine?_ You know we can smell that Siren from here anyway," Hypno laughed.

Logan growled in response, which only made the other mutant laugh more.

"Logan, thank you so much for putting in that outdoor shower, by the way," Hypno said slyly. "I would never have known that she had a tattoo."

Lorelei gasped, and clapped her hand over her mouth, and Logan unsheathed both sets of claws.

"Damn, that was a guess!" Hypno was incredulous. "You two are so easy!"

Lorelei had been frozen in place, but now she started backing away, feeling like she was on display.

"Hope you're feeling better, Lorelei," Hypno called after her. "You know, I think Deek said he was coming down with something." He smiled, without letting the expression touch his eyes, which were boring holes into her.

Logan started to take a step in his direction, but looked at the gun Hypno held, which he lazily switched from one hand to the other, and the Wolverine edged backward, narrowing his eyes at them as he shielded Lorelei with his body.

"No," said Logan, his threatening tone carrying over the water to the other two mutants. "I don't think that Deek is going to be feeling well at all today."

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"Hank, is that you?"

"Anna!" Dr. Henry McCoy held the phone to his ear with one furry blue paw, smiling at the sound of his friend's voice on the line. "How was your sabbatical?"

"The trip of a _lifetime,"_ her syrupy voice gushed. "Peru was a dream come true."

"I'm jealous, you'll have to send me pictures," laughed Hank.

"I just got my messages from the Sociology Department now that I'm back on campus_ - _I'm so sorry, but it says you called me two months ago! What was it about?"

"It's about Canada, actually," Hank sobered directly. "I thought if anyone would know, you would. The West Coast . . . have you ever heard of a mutant community on one of the islands out there?"

Anna paused, silence coming to Beast down the line. "Who told you that?" she asked warily. "I wouldn't call it a community. It's more like . . . a cult."

Hank felt a prickle of anxiety at her words. "A cult?" he repeated.

She hummed thoughtfully. "I think it was about ten years ago that a colleague doing research tried to go there_ - _a historic lighthouse or station or something. But they kept putting him off_ - _it's technically privately owned, so doesn't have to be open to the public. Eventually they were almost threatening him if he would try to come over. He said that he got the impression they were somewhat zealous_ - _almost like mutant supremacists. And he heard rumors about mutant _breeding. _The place is really sinister."

"Anna, I'm sorry, I must go_ - _right away." Hank terminated the call, charging out the door of his office at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. "Charles!" he cried. "We need to get the jet!"


	15. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

"What are you going to do?" Lorelei asked in a timid voice, sitting in the passenger seat while Logan drove them down the road to the town.

Logan made an effort to relax his stony expression, not wanting the fear in her voice to be there because of him.

"Baby . . ." he started, trying to figure out how much he should tell her. "I'm going to show him what happens when he puts his hands on you," he finished.

Lorelei bit her lower lip, looking at the places on his hands where the deadly blades would slide out.

"I'm dropping you off at Kathy's, first," said Logan, "and I want you to say good-bye."

She jumped, her mouth dropping open at this.

Logan continued. "When I come back to get you, I'm going to tell Rod that I'm finishing what I've already started at the cabin, and then we are on the next ferry out of here."

Tears sprang to Lorelei's eyes. "Logan . . . ."

"Lorelei. It's done."

She could hear the alpha male in his voice, a tone he hadn't used with her before, but one that brokered no argument at all. She wiped her eyes and watched the trees slip by out the window in the early morning light.

When he pulled up outside of Kathy's familiar house, she leaned over and quickly kissed his cheek, whispering "be careful" before she flew out the car door and up onto the porch.

She knocked, and when Kathy answered, her face fell at seeing Lorelei's red eyes. "What's wrong, Lorelei? Come in, you look upset. Have you eaten breakfast yet, honey?"

Following the older woman into the house, Lorelei sniffled and rubbed her nose, then dropped into a chair at the dining table, where Bill, Linda, and Rod held mugs of coffee and turned their attention to her.

"We. . . we have to _go,"_ she squeaked, tears spilling on her cheeks again.

Everyone reacted at once, leaning in, asking her what was going on, patting her hands, giving her tissues.

"It was Deek," explained Lorelei, her words all tumbling out at once, "he came into the house yesterday when I was sleeping, and Logan scented it, and he's going to Deek's now, and he's so mad, and then we're _leaving_ . . . ." She pressed the tissue to her eyes, too emotional to notice that Bill had eased himself out of his chair and went into the living room, picking up the telephone.

"Oh, sweetie, you can't go!" exclaimed Linda. "You're part of our family, now. Isn't there any chance that Logan will just cool off?"

"No, you can't reason with a feral once he has his blood up," said Rod grimly. "The primal side takes over."

"That seems awfully dangerous," commented Kathy. "Lorelei, if he's so out of control, maybe you ought to just stay here with us."

"I am_ - _he's coming back later to pick me up," said Lorelei.

"No, stay with us here, on the Island. Forever," explained Kathy.

Lorelei felt a qualm, and tried to keep her voice level. "I wouldn't stay without him. And he's my husband_ - _he'd never leave me and the baby here."

Linda and Kathy exchanged a look. "But you have to think about what's best for the baby, Lorelei," Linda told her softly. "Here, you can raise your baby near people who will love it, and Logan wants to take you away from that?"

"No, he just-" Lorelei struggled to explain.

"The best place for a mutant baby is around other mutants, Lorelei," Kathy reassured her. "You need to stay in a place where your child grows up knowing its own kind. We can provide you with security here, and you'll never want for anything."

Lorelei gave a dry laugh. "You can't be serious, can you? I love him_ - _he's the father of my child! I _want_ to be with him."

"But we need you here, Lorelei." Rod spoke in a commanding voice. "Don't you see how important you are? Bringing more mutant children into the world is the only way our people can survive. You have such a gift to give."

She pressed her fingers to her temples, starting to shake. "A gift? More children? I don't understand what you're saying."

"We can make a good match for you, Lorelei," Kathy said confidently. "If not Deek-"

"Deek?!" Lorelei gasped. "You want me to stay here and have more children, but without Logan? That's . . . sick. I would never_ - _I'm leaving." She stood abruptly, skittering her chair back behind her.

"No, you're not," Rod said quickly.

Lorelei whirled to face the old man in his seat. "You can't force me to stay here," she said incredulously.

"Why can't you understand this?" Kathy cried. "The whole damn Island understands that we need to make sacrifices for the sake of our collective good. You don't get to leave just because you want to. You have to do what most benefits everyone. We need you. _And_ your baby."

Nauseated by this declaration, Lorelei staggered a few steps back, bumping into someone's chest. Turning, she caught a brief glimpse of Hypno before he grabbed her, putting both hands on the sides of her face and bringing her eyes very close to his.

"Ohh, Siren," he whispered, working his hypnotic stare on her. "Shhh, there now." Her eyes unfocused, then closed, and she went completely limp, falling forward into his arms so that he cradled her, straightening up tall. Her head lolled onto his shoulder, and he bent to press his mouth onto hers, then whistled gleefully. "Holy shit! I think I'm in love."

"Knock it off," Rod ordered. "You take her to the station and make sure she stays out. And don't touch her again, you little pervert."

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Logan parked crookedly in front of the Sports Bar, flinging open his car door and striding up to enter the building. He looked around the room, claws out, and turned his head to the kitchen doorway, where he could smell Deek right before the other man emerged.

Deek nodded at Logan's adamantium blades. "Blaze and Hypno said you'd be coming for me. You going to kill me?"

"Should I?" asked Logan, not taking his eyes off of him.

Deek actually considered this for a moment. "Yes," he answered honestly. "But not because I came in there while she was sleeping, and brought her water, and looked at her in her underwear and kissed her." Logan began a long, low growl in his chest. Deek continued. "You should kill me because I'm going to make her mine."

"You can't take me."

Deek inclined his head, allowing his thick, black claws to grow from each finger. "Not alone, I can't."

Logan caught a belated whiff of someone behind him, at the exact moment Blaze launched his large body onto Logan's back, claws digging in and ripping his flesh. The Wolverine bellowed, dropping to a crouch to flip the other mutant off of him, and Blaze landed heavily on the floor. Deek could see through the torn, bloody holes in the back of Logan's shirt that his skin was healing instantaneously, knitting itself back together until it looked like it had never been injured. Bill had said that he'd never seen someone with as fast a healing factor as this, and Deek now understood what the Doc had been talking about.

Logan drove his metal claws into Blaze's upper arm, stabbing through skin and bone and pinning him to the ground. Blaze gave a bloodcurdling yell, which was cut off abruptly when Logan pulled his other hand back and punched him in the face. Stepping on Blaze's chest, the Wolverine roared as he launched himself over the bar at Deek, who was still standing behind it. Both men went down in a cascade of broken glasses and bottles of alcohol.

Deek grappled with Logan, trying to wrestle the larger man beneath him, and when he was unable, he tore at Logan's throat with his claws, blood flowing wet beneath his fingers and making them slip on the instantly-healed flesh on the Wolverine's neck. Deek felt a burning sensation in his side, and knew that Logan had driven those foot-long blades into his ribcage.

Suddenly Logan was jerked upward away from Deek, who saw that Blaze had leapt over the bar to grab the man from behind, squeezing him with both arms tight around his chest so that Logan could not reach Blaze's body. As Blaze gave a panther-like scream and gripped Logan's shoulder with his teeth, Deek jumped to his feet and laid into him for all he was worth. He clawed and punched and kicked at Logan while Blaze tore a chunk of flesh out of his back, catching an adamantium blade in the face as Logan blindly stabbed at the mutant behind him.

Pummeling Logan's stomach with his fists and eliciting a satisfying breathless grunting sound from him, Deek saw Blaze shake his head, his own healing factor starting to work on the huge cut on his cheek. Momentarily distracted, Deek wasn't expecting it when Logan's fist smashed into his face, feeling for all the world like getting walloped with a sledgehammer. Deek spit out a tooth and a mouthful of blood, then Logan's other fist hit the opposite side of his head. Deek went down hard on the ground.

Slashing at the arms that were still locked around his chest, Logan tore his own skin with his claws in an effort to dislodge Blaze, succeeding when he managed to sever Blaze's right hand completely from his arm. Blaze howled in pain, releasing the Wolverine and staggering backward, giving Logan ample room to whirl around and bring his claws down on the junction of Blaze's neck and shoulder, arterial blood spurting everywhere.

Blaze fell onto his back, redness spreading out rapidly beneath him while Logan sliced into his stomach with the long blades, another geyser of blood contributing to the pool on the ground. More blood bubbled from the redheaded man's lips as he choked and coughed in pain.

Deek hooked his feet around one of Logan's ankles, yanking as hard as he could and knocking Logan back to the ground. He gripped a handful of Logan's hair to lift his head, bringing it forcefully back to the ground over and over and hearing the crunch of Logan's nose breaking during one of these collisions. Sinking his claws into Logan's chest over the man's heart, Deek distantly registered the sound of the bar's front door opening.

Deek growled, trying to get to his knees for better leverage when an explosion boomed suddenly behind him, the sound momentarily silencing him. Logan suddenly collapsed to the ground beneath him, and he stared at the man, unable at first to make sense of this through the haze of fury clouding his mind. Then he realized that there was a bullet lodged in Logan's forehead.

Whipping his head around, Deek saw Jim standing behind him, holding a shotgun. Jim beckoned Deek frantically, already retreating toward the front door and skidding on the puddle of blood. "Deek, let's go! He won't stay down long with that healing factor!"

Scrambling to his feet, Deek started when he looked down at Blaze's dismembered body with its red eyes staring lifelessly at the room, unseeing. Forcing down the bile in his throat as he stepped over his dead brother-in-law, Deek followed Jim out the door and they jumped into their cars, the sound of their tires squealing being the first noise that Logan heard as he regained consciousness when the bullet eased out of his head and fell to the ground.


	16. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Lorelei came to, the smell of mildew filling her nose as she blinked her eyes and tried to focus. She was lying down on something that felt scratchy and rough on her skin, and she could see nothing in the dimness around her. Squinting, she raised her head and looked around, then noticed a bright sliver of light several yards away from her. _A door._

She pushed herself up to a sitting position with her hands, her eyes adjusting to the dark and observing that she was in a long rectangular room with that door at one end, empty save for the narrow army cot on which she'd been laying. There was nothing familiar about this place.

Getting to her feet, Lorelei stole silently over to the bright light emanating from the sides of the door and jiggled the knob. Locked. She paced the length of the room, now noticing a low opening at the other end of the room, and poking her head carefully inside it. A cramped spiral staircase led upward, and after hesitating momentarily over this unknown avenue, she began to climb.

The stairs merely led to another locked door, and she retreated back down disappointed, returning to the cot and sitting down to grip the edges of it with her hands as she tried to will her panicked heart rate to slow. She was debating with herself whether or not she should start screaming when she heard voices outside.

"Hey!" She recognized Hypno's smooth tone, despite its note of agitation. "What happened to you?"

"He came to fight us at the bar." She heard Deek, sounding out of breath. "Some of this blood is Blaze's_ - _Logan killed him."

"Shit!" Hypno cursed, muffled around the door.

"I had to leave him there. Jim came in and shot Logan and we both drove away."

Lorelei felt an icy hand clench her heart, chilling her blood and making her body shiver.

"He dead?" asked Hypno.

"No. Maybe. But probably not. His healing factor is insane. And Bill said that the metal of his claws covers his whole skeleton, so I don't think even a bullet to the skull would stop him."

Lorelei exhaled, trying to tamp down her hysteria. She knew that Logan had been shot before, and he'd told her how quickly the bullet was expelled from his body, his flesh healing as if nothing had ever happened.

"Did you tell Tanya?" Hypno inquired.

"Not yet. Jim and Kathy are going to. I went to Jim's with him and then came straight here. She inside?"

"Yeah. I had to come out here because her scent was getting me all hot." Hypno waited, then continued sarcastically, _"You're welcome, _by the way, for not fucking her."

"Shut the fuck up, Hypno." Lorelei heard the sound of a key in the lock, and the door opened to admit Deek into the little room.

"Lorelei," he greeted her.

She started shaking. "Please, please no," she whispered. Her voice quavered and broke as she began to cry. She wrapped her arms across the front of her body. "Please don't."

Deek had started walking toward her, but stopped, looking horrified. "I'm not going to rape you. Jesus_ - _you're pregnant, too. What kind of person do you think I am?"

"I don't know," she sobbed, covering her face with her hands.

He made his way over to the little cot, sitting down next to her so that his thigh touched hers. He wrapped his arms around her and she flinched, but he tightened his grasp and held her to his chest. "You don't need to cry_ - _I'm not going to hurt you." His mouth was close to her ear, and he brushed over her hair with his nose, inhaling deeply.

"Lorelei," he said softly, lifting her chin so that he could look at her face. "Everything's going to be okay. I want you to understand that I'm doing this for you. For us."

"Killing my husband?" she asked plaintively.

His hold on her increased briefly, but then he started moving one hand in slow, soothing circles on her back. "He killed Blaze. And this is the only way I can have you. Someone else is taking care of Logan; I'm sorry for that. But I don't want to make it hard for you to fall in love with me."

"You're insane."

He looked at her face, his expression pained. She wouldn't meet his eyes. "I'm actually not. I know you _were_ with him, before. But I'll just be patient while you come around to me." He started stroking her hair. "I need you. I've been waiting for the right mate for a long time, and now that you're here I'm not letting you go."

"Where are we?"

He kissed her neck, just below her ear, and she flinched again. "We're still on the Island_ - _this is an old lighthouse station. I'm sorry that Hypno had to knock you out to bring you here, but they needed to keep you safe until I could come get you."

"How can you do this to me?"

He sighed. "Lorelei, I love you. I want to take care of you, and here is where I can do that best. I'm an important person on this island, and you will be, too." The hand that was on her back trailed down her spine, coming to rest on her hip. "God, you feel so good."

Lorelei whispered, so quietly he could barely hear her: "It's the mutation."

"Hmm?" he asked, kissing down the underside of her jaw.

She struggled, and he squeezed her tightly, nuzzling her cheek with his nose and nipping her earlobe. She stilled, conceding that he was too strong for her to escape him.

"Deek," she tried again. "It's my mutation making you think you love me. It's getting in your head, but it's not real." Tears fell down her face.

"That's not true," he corrected her. He held her face in both of his hands, looking into her eyes. "I want you all the time, even when I'm not with you. So it's not your magic filling my mind; it's just _you."_ He licked her tears, and she winced, her eyes closed.

"You have to let me go."

"Lorelei, I've just been telling you why I can't: you're mine now." He rubbed her knee, then ran his hand up her thigh, where it rested heavily. "I'm not going to force you, I want you to want this." He kissed her, her lips unresponsive. "Come on, Baby, I think you'll like me a lot better once you let me make love to you."

He ran his hands through her hair, cupping the back of her head and tilting it back to press his lips against her collarbone, tracing a line of soft kisses and tasting her skin.

"Deek, please stop," she begged, her stomach roiling in despair.

He pulled his head up. "Lorelei, I know you're scared, but you like this, too. I can smell it."

"No," she said vehemently.

He got his arm behind her knees and lifted her, scooping her into his lap. She could feel the hardness in his jeans beneath her, and his arm still held her firmly to his chest as his other hand skimmed lightly up her arm, deliberately brushing against her breast. "Please," he whispered into her ear, latching his mouth onto her neck and sucking gently.

The door flew open and Tanya stood there, her feline eyes widening when she saw them. She took a faltering step into the room, saying "Blaze is . . . ."

Deek displaced Lorelei carefully from his lap, and got up to cross the room and hug his sister. "Tanya, I know_ - _I'm so sorry."

Tanya took a ragged breath. "What are you doing here with her? Her mate lives."

Deek glanced at Lorelei, then lowered his voice. "I know, but probably not for much longer. Rod and Jim are going to take care of it - probably decapitate him. You'll have your vengeance. And I will have her."

"Deek, she'll never give you her body freely," Tanya insisted. "Don't you smell her fear and disgust? She doesn't want you."

"No," said Deek. "I'll keep her here, with me, forever. It may take a long time, but she'll accept this."

Tanya tilted her head, examining him. "I'm sorry," she said finally. She reached up, grasped his head, and snapped his neck. He dropped to the floor like lead. "Let's go. Now," she said to Lorelei.

Lorelei was stunned. "But he's your brother . . . ." she said hoarsely.

"He'll live," Tanya muttered, looking grimly down at his body. "Especially once Bill gets to him and turns on his healing hands. But we need to get out of here before that happens."

Tanya turned and bolted out the door, Lorelei following closely behind. Outside, Hypno was lying prone on the paved concrete that led to some kind of gravel drive or parking area.

"Oh! Is he . . . ?" Lorelei asked.

"Dead? Yeah. I hate that guy," said Tanya. "He wouldn't let me in."

Lorelei averted her eyes, trying not to stumble as she felt a wave of lightheadedness hit her. "Tanya, where are we going?"

_"We_ aren't going anywhere. _You_ need to get back to your mate so that he can protect you. And then you two need to find a way off this Island."

Lorelei nodded. "Tanya, thank you so much for helping me."

Tanya scowled. "I'm not helping you_ - _I'm helping my brother. He's so infatuated with you he doesn't see all the stupid and stubborn things he's doing to get you. He'll never be happy if he lives his life with a mate who is dying to be away from this place. I would know. Spark!" she called suddenly.

The little redheaded boy appeared from a pair of bushes, scampering quickly to his mother's side. Lorelei noticed that Tanya angled herself beside her son so that the child could not see Hypno's body lying dead on the ground.

"Spark and I are leaving," Tanya informed her. "Blaze_ - _he's dead. So now is my only chance to get away. I hate to be separated from my brother, but I hope someday he'll understand. I came here to see Deek one last time and save him from his crazy obsession with you by getting you the hell out of there." She jerked her head behind her. "I have a boat just for the two of us; I'm getting my son away."

She had just finished speaking when Lorelei heard the sound of a familiar pair of boots striking the pavement, running towards her. Her heart leapt, and she felt her breath quicken as she looked around frantically for Logan. She saw him round the corner of the building, covered in sweat and drying blood, his shirt in tatters, claws out and expression wild. He'd never looked so good.

"Lorelei!" he yelled, heading straight for her. She made a move to rush to his arms, but a very sharp pain in her neck halted her.

"Stop right there!" screamed Tanya, her long talons digging into the skin at the base of Lorelei's skull. Her son clung to her leg, hiding his face in her jeans, and she rested her other hand gently on his head, a comforting gesture at odds with the way that her other hand now threatened Lorelei's life. Logan skidded to a stop, panting, his eyes staring uncomprehending at this new wrinkle.

"Don't come any closer_ - _you need to listen to me," said Tanya evenly. "Or I will rip her open."

"I'm listening," said Logan, his hands up in a gesture of surrender. He scanned Lorelei up and down for any other damage or injury.

"You cannot go after my brother," Tanya threatened, her voice low. "You have her back, you killed my mate_ - _you leave this place and you never return. But give me your word that you will not harm my brother, now or ever."

Logan growled when he noticed the small round welt of broken blood vessels on Lorelei's neck that Deek's mouth had made on her. He could smell the other male's scent coming from Lorelei's body and his arms flexed with the desire to crush the life from him. Tanya's son noticed this and whimpered.

Trying not to grimace at the pointy claws pressed against her throat, Lorelei raised her hands slowly to catch Logan's attention. "James," she said quietly. "I am still _yours."_ She glanced at Spark, choosing her words carefully. "There hasn't been any other." She stared deeply into her husband's eyes, willing him to understand that whatever fears he'd had about her captivity, Deek had not raped her.

Logan let out a breath and tried to uncoil his tense muscles. "All right," he said warily. "I won't harm your brother."

Tanya nodded once, then planted her paw firmly in the middle of Lorelei's back and shoved her toward Logan. Stumbling a bit, Lorelei got her feet underneath her and flew the last few steps into his arms. She glanced behind her and saw that Tanya had scooped up her little Spark and was already fleeting away.

"Baby," Logan soothed, holding her tightly and patting his hands all over her body. "Are you okay? Anything hurt?"

"No." Lorelei caught one of his hands and brought it to her lips, kissing it. "What about you? You were shot?! What happened to you? I was so scared, Logan_ - _I just can't lose you."

"I'm fine," Logan assured her. "I went to the bar to have it out with Deek, but Blaze was there and I fought them both_ - _I killed Blaze." He looked at her guiltily. "I guess you knew that. Jim shot me and he and Deek both left. I just ran to Kathy's house and there they all were, ready to use more guns and cattle prods and whatever the fuck else they had to subdue me. But I grabbed the old man and made him tell me where you were. I didn't actually kill him, but . . . he had a heart attack, and died right there. I drove away to come find you."

"Sick asshole," Lorelei pronounced. Logan looked at her in surprise to hear her curse, and she thought about Rod wanting to take her baby and breed her like livestock, and said, "I'm glad he's gone."

Logan rubbed his thumb over the hickey on her neck, then pulled her in close to him to kiss her. "_I'm_ so glad you're okay. Even though I have to get his scent off of you again."

She buried her nose in his filthy, torn shirt. "We have to get out of here, and I have no idea how."

Suddenly, the sky roared with the deafening sound of a jet engine. The craft swooped into view, and before they even realized what was happening, the black X-men jet had landed on the ground beside Logan and Lorelei.

Logan grinned. "Looks like our ride's here." He grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the door of the plane, which was now opening.

Cyclops poked his head out, and took in Logan's ruined and bloody clothing and Lorelei's relieved expression before he asked: "Need a lift?"


	17. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

The X-men made quite a sight as they strolled through the lobby of the big hotel, even without the high-impact presence of Hank McCoy, who had insisted on staying behind with the jet at the private aircraft hangar they'd secured. Kurt leaned furtively behind a plant near the elevators, collar turned up and hat pulled down low over his blue skin, waiting for the others to finish getting keys to their rooms.

Only a few hundred miles away from the Island, they'd landed in Vancouver after Logan had boarded the jet and informed them of the plan that he'd just formulated. Wanting to clean up and reassure Lorelei's lingering feelings of nervousness at their ordeal, he insisted that they land somewhere close by to have a comfortable place to rest and recuperate. He instructed Storm to check the ferry schedule, and tasked both her and Nightcrawler over the next few days with furtively returning to the Island, gathering up his and Lorelei's belongings, and driving their car safely onto the ferry to eventually reconvene in with the others in Vancouver.

The Professor urged Logan and Lorelei to return to the mansion in Westchester in the meantime, but Logan adamantly refused. "I am not deviating from our original idea at all, any more. I'm going to take my wife," here he put an arm around Lorelei, "go to the mountains, build us a place to live, and call it a day. We just need some privacy. That sound good to you, Lor?"

She nodded. "We'll figure everything out together. I trust you to always find ways to take care of us, so that helps me not feel so nervous about it all."

"So thanks for the offer, Chuck, but we've got this covered," said Logan.

Scott folded his arms across his chest. "Wow, Logan, that was pretty coherent for you. Is married life making you nice, or something?"

"Something like that," said Logan, who was privately thinking, _Yeah, it's amazing how much your attitude can improve with lots of energetic sex on a regular basis._

Xavier burst out laughing, which he quickly covered with a fake coughing fit.

"Charles, are you all right?" asked Lorelei, concerned.

"Yeah, _Charles, _everything okay?" Logan inquired pointedly of the telepathic mutant.

"It looks like everything is just as it should be," said Xavier, his eyes twinkling.

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Logan took his wife upstairs to their room and locked the door immediately, effectively sealing them off from the rest of the world. Shucking off his blood-stained clothing, he rinsed off under the shower spray before inviting Lorelei in to the large stall, washing and kissing every inch of her body. Finally coming down off of the adrenaline of the day, she was shaking and crying, and he simply held her tightly for a time under the warm water, then dried them both off and laid on the bed with her in his arms.

"You're still too far away from me," he commented, hugging her and stroking her bare bottom as she rested her cheek on the curly hair of his chest. Now cleaned of Deek's scent on her skin, Lorelei insisted on telling him everything that had happened to her during the day, both to aid her in putting the experience behind her, and to ensure that they had complete transparency between them. Curled up in front of him, she did not see his eyes flash angrily or his jaw clench when she described Deek's actions and intentions with her, but he took a deep breath and reminded himself of his promise to Tanya not to kill her brother, and focused instead on healing Lorelei from these violations.

She'd burst into tears, again, when she went to the bathroom and saw the red welt on her neck in the mirror, a reminder of her fear and revulsion from the day. "Why would he do that?" she asked angrily, dashing her tears away with the back of her hand.

Logan appeared with a little bandage in his hand. "Don't look at it, Love," he said, applying the flesh-colored strip to her skin. "It's going to fade very soon and it will be like it was never there. And he was trying to mark you," he added. "To claim you as his mate. Feral thing."

"Oh," she realized. "But . . . you don't do that."

"No," he confirmed. "I don't need to. You are my wife-" here he paused to lift her left ring finger and kiss it, "and you're carrying my child-" another kiss, this time to her stomach, "and I have no reason to mark your beautiful body any more than that. Every fiber of your being knows that you are mine."

Lorelei shivered slightly from the impact of his words, which she felt to be true, as well as from the chill of standing naked on the cold tile floor of the bathroom, so Logan scooped her up into his arms, cradling her against his big warmth, and placing her carefully on the bed.

"I'm going to make love to you," he whispered, trailing his nose down her chest between her breasts, and kissing her abdomen, the tender part just below her ribcage. She stretched out her arms and linked them around his neck, and he rose up over her, kissing her deeply and moaning slightly at the taste of her mouth.

He stroked gently between her legs, using his fingers to stimulate her in welcome of him. Pushing them in and out of her slowly, at the same time he bent to her breast, softly biting his way completely around it before sealing it with his mouth and applying his tongue to her nipple. She gave a long sigh, running her fingers through his hair, and he lifted his head again to blow on the skin that was now wet from his attention, making her jump a little and break out in goosebumps, and he laughed quietly.

Positioning himself above her, he finished teasing her swollen flesh with his fingers, and eased his cock into her in replacement. He slid both of his arms underneath her, surrounding her with his body just as he felt her clutch him tightly inside of her, ready for him to fill her. But he moved slowly, almost agonizingly, to draw out his complete possession of her as long as possible. Lorelei closed her eyes in pleasure, rolling a little back and forth with his every steady movement, all of her nerve endings awake and sensitive to the heat of her man's touch.

She came suddenly, surprising them both, her eyes flying open as she gasped and trembled, and her body pulsed around him. Smiling as he watched her melt with her satisfaction, he continued pumping rhythmically, increasing his speed after a few moments in order to watch her convulse with orgasm once again, calling out his name.

Slipping out of her wet tightness briefly, Logan rolled her languorously onto her stomach, her upper body and torso carefully supported by a pillow. He stretched his big body out to settle on top of hers, using his feet to spread her legs a little more, and held his hard length in his hand to guide it back inside of her. She stretched backward into him and made a sustained _Mmm_ sound, and he froze, because her intonation turned him on so much that he almost exploded, and he was definitely not ready to be done knowing her body this way.

With one hand cupped underneath her breast firmly to hold her still, he kissed along the bones of her shoulder blades and thrust upward into her, his path inside of her slick with wetness from both of them. His palm gripped her hip comfortably as he rode out his last few strokes, which crested him over the peak of his own orgasm, causing him to slam into her a little roughly and make her come one more time.

He withdrew himself from her and returned her to her back, her cheeks pink from their lovemaking, and kissed her thoroughly. She bit her lower lip as she pulled back to look meaningfully into his eyes. _Siren, _he thought.

Lorelei reached her hand down gradually between her legs, never breaking his eye contact, but he could smell that she was touching herself; this, combined with her deliberate stare, was incredibly erotic. She raised her fingers and licked them, sucking his residue off of her skin. He was certain that his mouth was hanging open by now, and she batted her eyelashes playfully as she repeated the action, curling her fingers against her tender flesh, before this time she brought her hand to her breasts, encircling her nipples with the slippery substance that he'd left behind inside of her.

She continued this pattern, anointing herself in this way on her stomach, hipbones, clavicle, and mouth. Her whole body emanated with his musk. He leaned down to kiss her, but she stopped his mouth with one damp finger.

"Marked," she informed him. "But in my way, my choice. I choose to be yours. Forever." She reached up and captured his lips in a kiss, sealing their bond.


	18. Epilogue

Epilogue

"UUGGHHNNNNN! FUCK! Fuck fucking FUCK!"

Logan kept a straight face, though he felt an urge to laugh at the sound of his wife's lovely voice screaming swear words, which he never heard her say aloud. He rubbed her hand where she gripped his, her knuckles turning white with the effort even though with his adamantium bones, he felt almost nothing.

"Logan- I can't- UNGH- I CAN'T DO IT!" she cried. "Logan, I can't do it, I can't do it, _ican'tdoitican'tdoit!"_

"Oh, Baby," Logan kissed her hand briefly. "Lorelei. Hank said that when you start saying that you can't do it, it's time to push. Next contraction, you push_ - _you _can_ do it, Baby."

She blew out a breath through pursed lips, flopping her head backward onto the pillows on their bed that Logan had arranged behind to support her. She panted for a moment, her breath quickening as another contraction began to roll toward her, squeezing her in its wake.

She howled. "Aauugh! Ow ow owowow!" She gritted her teeth and pushed.

Logan gently detached his fingers from hers, because he could tell that he'd need both hands soon. "One more_ - _one more, Baby!"

Lorelei let out a sustained, primal groan, and their child was born into Logan's safe hands. He grabbed a nearby towel and made sure that the baby's face was cleared of mucus, as Hank had instructed, thrilling at the cries from the tiny lungs.

Crouching down next to Lorelei, he wrapped his strong arm around her back and supported her next to his body, placing their baby on her chest and holding them both. She was gasping, trying to catch her breath and sob at the same time, which he briefly made more difficult by capturing her lips with his.

He kissed her forehead next, his throat choking with emotion, and said, "Lor? It's a boy."

"He's perfect," she replied.

"He is," Logan agreed. "What will we name him?"

"James," she said emphatically. "We're naming him for you."

"James Lee Logan," he pronounced.

She smiled, approving of his suggestion to use her maiden name as well. "I love you."

"And I love you," he breathed, gently touching his son's fragile limbs in Lorelei's loving arms. "Let me get everything taken care of, so that you can rest."

Closing her eyes, she listened to Logan moving around the room of the cabin he had built for them, handling the soiled linens and bringing her a drink of water and a little food. When he was finished, he came back to their bed, stripping off his shirt to pull her and baby in close to him, skin to skin. She rubbed her cheek against his chest, ready to drift off.

"Go to sleep, Lorelei," his deep voice soothed her. "I'm here."

**Author's Note:** Thank you to all readers - it thrills me to see you keeping pace with me on this narrative journey.** Sequel is posted, entitled Home in the Woods.**


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